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SPIRIT MESSAGES 



WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON 



SPIRITUAL VITALITY 



BY 



HIRAM CORSON, A. M., LL. D., LITT. D. 

PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF ENGLISH LITERA- 
TURE IN THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. 

THE AUSTIN PUBLISHING CO. 

MCMXI 



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Copyright 1911 by 
EUGENE R. CORSON 



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TO 



MRS. MINNIE MESERVE SOULE, 

thkough whose mediumship the spibit 
Messages hebein weee delivebed, this 
book is dedicated by the geateful becip- 
ient of them, 

HlEAM COESON. 



In Nemoriam 

c. % a, r. h. c, j. c, z. a 



FOREWORD 

The Introduction on 'Spiritual Vitality' is an 
enlargement of an article on that subject which I 
contributed to 'Light/ of London, and which was 
published in that Journal on the 9th of July last. 

The Spirit Band from whom the messages were 
received, were brought together by my wife, at dif- 
ferent times within the two years, or more, after 
her decease, ivhich occurred on the 21st of May, 
1901. 

The sittings were, at first, in New York City, 
the medium being Mrs. Mayer, the most powerful 
of the slate-writing kind I have knoivn in my long 
experience. She has now passed to the spirit 
world. 

Eight years ago, I engaged a Swedish house- 
keeper, Mrs. Matilda Sjoegren, who had known 
nothing before of spiritual seances, but had been, 
early in life, conscious of spirit visitations. Dur- 
ing two visits to me from Mrs. Mayer, she became 
interested in the subject and, after she left, we be- 
gan to have regular daily sittings at a small table. 
For some time, the manifestations were only of a 



viii FOREWORD 

physical character. After some months, raps 
came on the table, and ive got answer, 'yes' or 
'no' to questions asked, three raps meaning 'yes,' 
and one rap, 'no.' 

After some months, again, there were whispered 
voices; and these, in time, became fully vocal. 

At this stage of our progress, the sittings be- 
gan to be held only twice a week, and so continued 
for two years or more, and afterwards but once a 
week, one of my sons having said that they had 
all been advanced, that their work would conse- 
quently be increased, and that they could come 
but once a week. The weekly sitting has been con- 
tinued to the present time. 

In reply to my question^ what was meant by 
advancement, he said they had passed to a sphere 
of higher vibrations. 

It was at the request of the Band that I went to 
Boston, last September, to have sittings with Mrs. 
Minnie Meserve Soule, a trance medium of high 
repute, who had been highly recommended to me 
by Miss Lilian Whiting, who has written so much, 
indirectly, on Spiritualism. 



FOREWORD ix 

The object of the request of the Band was, as 
they explained it, that they could give me long and 
coherent messages. (The messages received at 
home were generally not more than a sentence or 
two, the 'power' not being sufficient for longer 
messages.) 

The remarkable messages contained in this 
booh, are the result of 24 daily sittings with Mrs. 
Soule. 

The names of the spirits constituting the regu- 
lar Band are those given in the title of the book, 
with the exception of the four last, Goldwin Smith, 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Ewart Gladstone, 
and Valentine Mott. These four were brought, at 
different times, to the sitting, by their friends, and 
special honors were shown them. 

The sittings were guarded from intruding spir- 
its by a large band of Indian spirits, brought by 
Longfellow, whose work is in the Indian sphere. 
Intruding spirits, who are generally of a low rank, 
would seriously have interfered ivith the messages 
of the Band, which messages were, as previously 
purposed, each of a special character. 



x FOREWORD 

My long and loving relationship ivith the Band, 
and my not being a scientific investigator (that is, 
one who applies his insulated intellect to a spirit- 
ual subject) caused the conditions to be altogether 
favorable for the delivery of the messages. 

All the members of the Band knew of me when 
they were in the body, and of my work as Profes- 
sor of English Literature; and I was acquainted 
with their literary works, and included some of 
them in my courses of lectures and readings. 

This will partly serve to explain the make-up 
of the Band. 

Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Brown- 
ing were the first to join my wife, daughter, and 
two sons, at the sittings. Browning I knew for 
several years; my wife and I were last with him 
in Venice, in November, 1889; and when we parted, 
he had but a month and four days to live, though 
.he showed remarkable vigor at the time. The 
last words he said to us, after bidding us good bye, 
were, i( now remember you must visit me next May 
at Be Vere Gardens in London." 

I published, in 1886, an introduction to the study 
of his poetry, which met ivith his highest approba- 



FOREWORD X i 

tion. In his letter acknowledging the receipt of 
the hooky he wrote — "Let it remain as an assur- 
ance to younger poets that, after fifty years 9 work 
unattended by any conspicuous recognition, an 
over-payment may be made, if there be such an- 
other munificient appreciator as I have been privi- 
leged to find; in which case let them, even if more 
deserving, be equally grateful/ 9 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning received my daugh- 
ter when she passed to the spirit world in 1874, 
and was her guardian angel until her mother went 
over in 1901. 

I write this about these two great poets as an ob- 
vious explanation of their being the first to join 
my wife and children at the earliest sittings, which 
were held in New York, Mrs. Mayer being, as I 
have, said, the medium. 

Tennyson came next, brought by Browning and 
welcomed by my wife to the Band. They were 
devoted friends when in the body, and the mes- 
sages show that they are devoted friends in the 
spirit world. 

Tennyson knew of me when he was in the body, 
first through my annotated edition of 'The Two 



xii FOREWORD 

Voices" and "Dream of Fair Women," publish- 
ed in 1882; and a short time before his decease, he 
read my booh on the Aesthetics of English Verse, 
and expressed himself delighted with it. 

Walt Whitman I knew the last seven years of his 
life. I saw, several years before, the greatness of 
his message as embodied in his "Leaves of 
Grass," especially in his "Song of the Open 
Road," and I presented that message to my stu- 
dents, in my courses of lectures on American liter- 
ature. 

He has shown in his messages, as will be seen, 
a great devotion to my two sons, who passed away 
in babyhood, one, 54, the other 49 years ago; and 
they, in their messages, show a like devotion to 
him. 

My wife corresponded with Longfellow, now 56 
years ago, while she was making a French transla- 
tion of his * Hyperion/ with which he expressed 
himself highly pleased; he said, in fact, that he/ 
translation was better than the original. She also 
translated portions of 'Hiawatha' into German, in 
the trochaic-tetrameter verse of the original. 



FOREWORD xiii 

There is a playful allusion, in one of his messages, 
to her translation of 'Hyperion.' 

Browning and Tennyson knew F. W. H. Myers 
as a poet and a distinguished Virgil scholar, when 
they were in the body. I don't remember how he 
was brought to the Band. But I remember he was 
joyfully received. 

I used, for several years, his Wordsworth, pub- 
lished, thirty years ago, in 'English Men of Let- 
ters,' in my department of English Literature. 
This work shoivs his early spiritual vitality, which 
long after led to his interest in Psychical Research, 
the result being his great work, 'Human Person- 
ality and its survival of bodily death,' a great con- 
tribution to real Psychology. Much that is so 
called is only somatology, the science of the physi- 
cal body. He has expressed his great pleasure in 
coming to my private sittings after the repeated 
tests of his identity, made in London, by 
those who knew him in the body, and without their 
being satisfied. 

I knew Phillips Brooks and Frances Bennett, 
the latter about forty years. I gave a course of 



xiv FOREWORD 

lectures and readings, nearly every year, during 
that period, in the Ladies' school with which she 
was connected. She was an Episcopalian, and 
had then no belief in Spiritualism. She thought 
I had been deceived! 

How far Phillips Brooks's belief in spirit visi- 
tation ivent, when he was in the body, can be seen 
in one of his great messages. 

The messages of Goldwin Smith, Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, William Eivart Gladstone, and Valen- 
tine Mott will tell their own story. 

In one of Goldwin Smith's latest articles, writ- 
ten in his earthly life, he bids farewell to ghosts. 
He had no belief whatever in spirit visitation. 
The first sentence of his first message, given here- 
in (he had been but three months in the spirit 
world), indicates the sudden change induced by 
physical death: 'I believe the world would fall to 
pieces if it were not held together by the influences 
from the Spirit World.' 

I have thus noted the unique character of the 
Spirit Band, including the four great spirits ivho 
were welcomed to the sittings. 

In the nine years of my sittings ivith this Band, 



FORE WARD xv 

I never had occasion to question the identity of 
any member of it. 

Identity is a thing which cannot be proved to 
unbelievers in spirit visitation, nor even to some 
believers; and it is not worth while to attempt 
proof to such, as was shown in the case of F. W. 
H. Myers. 

The time is not far distant when there will be 
(and it ivill appear to some to be very sudden) a 
wonderful transformation of the general mind, 
which is now being more or less unconsciously 
moulded by the atmosphere which is in course of 
rapid development. H. C. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

This book is the legacy of an old man. It was 
written in the closing months of his long life. To 
see it through the press was his latest task, and 
it was his dying wish that it be published as he 
left it. That wish I gladly carry out. 

The unpracticed work of the printer needs no 
further explanation, but it has seemed to me ad- 
visable in order that the character of the book 
and my father's eagerness for its publication may 
be better understood, to state briefly his attitude 
toward psychical research, and especially toward 
spiritualism as a religion. It will be evident at 
once to the reader that he accepted these messages 
without the slightest doubt of their genuineness. 
To him they were exactly what they purported to 
he , as much so as if he had received them viva voce 
or by letter from friends in this world. As far 
back as I can remember this was his attitude to- 
ward many such psychical phenomena. He has 



2 PREFA CTOR Y NO TE 

told me that lie was aware at times of unseen 
presences — especially one unseen presence often 
with him in his youth— so that the reality of this 
' ' other world ' ' was believed in just as he believed 
in the reality of this world. It had become to him 
a matter of course. To the communications re- 
ceived he applied the same standards of judgment 
he applied to the people he met or the writings he 
read. If they, their surroundings, the tone of 
their conversation commended themselves to him y 
he accepted them and received them into his confi- 
dence. The possibility of fraud he met exactly as 
he met it in his relations with his fellowman in 
every day life. It was no more no less than the 
fraud in the world at large'. In his dealings with 
his fellowman he felt it better in the long run to 
trust than to mistrust. A wise and discriminat- 
ing trust he counted rather a protection against 
deception, while an attitude of distrust courted 
deception. And as I look back over his life, I 
find that his choice of friends was usually a wise 
and fortunate one. I know, too, that he seldom 
lost anything by hasty overconfidence. Certainly 
in his academic life he had a rarely erring instinct 



PREFA CTOR Y NOTE 3 

as to character among his colleagues and his stu- 
dents. The good he eagerly cultivated, the bad he 
left to their own devices ; yet there was no lack of 
hospitality in his home or of discipline in his lec- 
ture room. 

With the English ' ' Society for Psychical Ee- 
search" he was in sympathy, for he felt that its 
members were scholars and men of character. It 
was only when such research seemed based on ab- 
solute doubt, when there was no open mind (no 
^mind to let," as Sir William Crookes puts it), 
and where the endeavor seemed to be rather to de- 
tect the fraudulent than to discover the genuine, 
that he grew impatient and indignant , and then 
his indignation was always most outspoken. 

For the " insulated intellect," as he often said 
to me (and often in his writings) — the intellect of 
mere cunning — he had no admiration. It was only 
when mind was linked with man's finer spiritual 
nature that he felt any real creative or abiding 
work to be produced. Not only in poetic, literary, 
or artistic work did he feel this true, but in purely 
scientific and in the most practical and matter-of- 
fact work, the greatest results came with the co- 



4- PREFACTORY NOTE 

operation of the spiritual and intellectual nature- 
And so, too, with the faculty of observation, a func- 
tion so important to the scientific mind, this same 
cooperation he counted necessary. Here, he be- 
lieved, man 's deeper and higher self acts as finder r 
while mind alone checks off and arranges the find- 
ings. We find what we have been prompted to 
look for. Thus an aspiration, an undefined sense 
of the existence of something hoped for, leads on 
to the thing itself, which the intellect pounces 
upon with all the delight of an independent and 
accidental find. He held, further, that the higher 
observation comes through a passive, receptive 
state, not through one of great mental intentness y 
with the eyes glued to the spot. And of this view 
he has spoken to me in connection with much of 
the psychical research and the treatment of me- 
diums — such as occurred in the case of Eusapia 
Palladino in this country. The investigators had 
taken it for granted in the beginning that she was 
a fraud, and their whole time and endeavors were 
taken up with this assumption. Before her ar- 
rival they even had rehearsals where one acted as 
the medium cheating, while the others watched, 



PREFACTORY NOTE 5 

each with his own special part to detect. By this 
attitude, this intentness to discover fraud and 
only fraud, the spontaneity of the phenomena, he 
thought, had been suppressed, their own idee fixe 
having precluded any belief whatever in the real- 
ity of the phenomena. Faith and belief seemed to 
him better companions in work than doubt and 
distrust; and this not only in psychical research, 
but in the affairs of the world at large. 

Thus, as with many others, even with some who 
have approached the subject from the scientific 
side, spiritualism had come to be to him a religion, 
and his daily talk with his unseen loved ones had 
become as necessary as to the devot his daily 
prayer and meditation. Only they who were with 
him in his home could realize how deeply this com- 
munion had entered into his life, from the moment 
he arose in the morning until he fell asleep at 
night. It had become a sort of beatific cult — a 
form of ancestor-worship. Before the portrait 
of each loved one was ever the floral offering. 
Every memento of the past had become sacred. 
The little room dedicated to his loved ones had be- 
come a shrine. If he walked or rode over the hills 



6 PREFA CTOR Y NO TE 

it was ever with the hope and the assurance that 
his unseen loved ones were enjoying with him the 
trees, the flowers, the lake, the sky, the distant 
view. If he was mistaken, his error was more 
beautiful than truth, for it brought him peace and 
happiness when circumstance and his own nature 
had made him lonely in this world, even with 
many friends and admirers about him. 

Holding this faith and this belief he had long 
ceased to look for tests or evidential matter of 
any kind. Yet, when some bit of evidence did 
come, he showed much pleasure, welcoming it as 
a further confirmation of his faith. How often I 
have heard him say: "I am not an investigator 
and never was one. ' ' 

As early as 1874, soon after the death of his 
only daughter, he wrote for the Cornell Review, a 
student publication, an article on ' ' Modern Spirit- 
ualism." To have written such a paper, in a 
university magazine, at a time when belief in such 
a faith was, with the public generally, an evidence 
of a disordered mind, and when it might be distaste 
f ul to university authorities and hazard a teacher 's 
position, shows his independent and fearless spirit 



PREFA CTOR Y NOTE 7 

— the same spirit which has now prompted him to 
make public these messages, messages of so in- 
timate and personal a nature, and laying bare so 
much of the privacy of the home. Very few, I 
think, would be willing to do this. And yet, many 
as are the books which he has written and publish- 
ed, he wrote me, after he had completed this work : 
"The writing of this book has given me more 
pleasure than the writing of any of my other 
books — and I am prouder of it, too. ' ' 

Not all the messages received by him through 
Mrs. Soule are included in this volume. He has 
left out some which seemed to me of greater evi- 
dential value. He chose them as he would have 
chosen selections from literature to make up a 
manual for reading, on account of their literary 
form and their thought content. Some he omit- 
ted because they appealed less keenly to his sense 
of love and devotion. What determined his choice 
was what he esteemed their worth, not to the scep- 
tic, but to the believer. Fully convinced himself 
of the reality of spirit communication, he simply 
would share the messages which seemed to him 
best worth the sharing. 



8 PREFAC10RY NOTh 

Certainly no such collection of spirit messages 
has ever been published before, and to those for 
whom they are meant they will as certainly have 
their worth. 

My father has repeatedly said that he had no 
missionary spirit. But this was true only in a 
measure. As a teacher, while he may not have 
been eager to plant new seed in new soil, his zeal 
in the cultivation of seed already planted was very 
great. Perhaps the missionary work he did ac- 
complish, as teacher and as writer, was the great- 
er for his unconsciousness of it. So, too, this 
book may prove. 

Eugene R. Coeson. 
Savannah, Georgia, N 

Oct. 1st, 1911. 



There is no death! What seems so is transition. 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, 

Whose portal we call Death. 

Longfellow. 

The spirit-world around this world of sense 

Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere 
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours 
dense 
A vital breath of more ethereal air. 

Longfellow. 

Life is probation and the earth no goal 
But starting point of man. 

Bkowning. 



INTBODUCTION. 

The conception of a personal God as a great 
monarch who was arbitrary in his dispensations, 
and who had to be appeased by burnt- offerings — 
the victims being, sometimes, hnman beings — 
must have been one of the earliest conceptions 
which the primitive man had in regard to a con- 
trolling power of the world. The conception un- 
derwent modifications as man progressed, his god 
being made more or less in the image of himself. 
But the conception of a supreme outside person- 
ality, superintending the world, in a human sense, 
has been maintained by the most advanced forms 
of religion, as has also that of an expiatory, aton- 
ing sacrifice. The latter, in the Christian religion, 
confined to one victim, is a doctrine of the ' ' ortho- 
dox' ' Church of to-day, mainly traceable to the 
Epistles attributed to St. Paul. 

St. Paul underwent changes in his attitude 
toward Christianity. At one time he made the 
resurrection of Christ (which, as he expressed it, 
abolished death and brought life and immortality 



6 INTRODUCTION 

to light), the all-important fact — and that was the 
attractive one to the Jews and the Gentiles who be- 
came Christians. He finally settled upon the Cru- 
cifixion as the cardinal fact on which all else 
hinged, determined, as he says, in the Epistle to 
the Corinthians, not to know anything among 
them save Christ crucified, identifying the cruci- 
fixion, in its purpose, with the Hebrew expiatory 
sacrifice. He can certainly be regarded as the 
author-in-chief of Christian theology, as his final 
doctrine of an atoning sacrifice has been main- 
tained by the Church to the present time as the 
cardinal one, and so it appears in the hymns of 
the Church. 

In Christian art the crucifixion was long a chos- 
en subject with the greatest artists ; and the cross 
has ever been the ensign and adopted symbol of 
Christianity. 

There had been a considerable growth of theol- 
ogy before the Gospels were written, and that 
growth was continued in them and can be traced 
through the four Gospels. Beginning with Mark, 
the earliest written, we see an advance from that 
Gospel through Matthew, Luke, and John, each 



INTRODUCTION 7 

claiming more for Christ 's nature and power. The 
Fourth Gospel, written several years, no doubt, 
after the Synoptics, may be said to be largely built 
upon the Logos idea of Philo JudaBus — Jesus is 
identified with the Logos. He is deified; at least, 
made superhuman. He is altogether a different 
personality from the Jesus of the Synoptics. 

All the seven miracles in this Gospel show a 
magnifying of power far beyond the twenty mir- 
acles of the Synoptics. The turning of water into 
wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee (there 
being six waterpots of stone, containing two or 
three firkins apiece, filled with water to the brim), 
the giving sight to a man who had been born blind, 
the raising of Lazarus, who had lain in the grave 
four days, are found only in this Gospel. 

The miracles were written, no doubt, to serve 
an apologetic, that is, a defensive, purpose. It 
does not appear that Jesus attached any special 
importance to his outward acts. He made spirit- 
ual vitality the all in all, the inducing of which was 
his great function. It is the burden of his teach- 
ings as recorded in the Gospels. In the Fourth 
Gospel he stands out prominently, almost exclu- 



8 INTRODUCTION 

sively, as the giver of spiritual life. "I am come 
that they might have life, and that they might 
have it more abundantly. ' ' — John x. 10. 

No dogmatism is ascribed to him in the Gospels. 
Creeds and dogmas were imposed on Christianity 
by the unspritualized intellect; but he who is 
spiritually alive is a Christian, independent of 
creeds, dogmas, and all other religious equipment. 

How much more the Church would have realized 
essential Christianity if it could have escaped the 
intolerant dominancy of creeds and dogmas ! And 
but for creeds and dogmas, the darkest, saddest 
pages of ecclesiastical history would not have been 
written; for to them were due, through several 
centuries, the torturings and burnings of heretics, 
many of them the greatest and best men of their 
times, of whom the world was not worthy, and 
who had, no doubt, realized essential Christianity 
by their exceptional spiritual vitality more than 
their inquisitors and persecutors. 

Furthermore, the Church without its creeds 
and dogmas would not have been, for centuries, the 
great obstacle it was to intellectual enlightenment 
and to science of every kind. The Italian Curia 



INTRODUCTION 9 

of the Eoman Catholic Church is still doing all in 
its power to oppose scientific investigation and ad- 
vanced thought, as being antagonistic to its creeds, 
its polity, and its intellectual despotism. 

Creeds and dogmas naturally lose their impor- 
tance as spiritual vitality advances. ■ ' He to whom 
the Eternal Word speaks, is set free from many 
opinions.* He does not merely have opinions, he 
has some knowledge absolute, subject to no dis- 
pute, which is of more worth than a legion of opin- 
ions. Multitudinous opinions, without a single 
ray of spirit-illumed knowledge, have kept the 
world in a constant state of antagonisms, especial- 
ly the religious world. Disputandi pruritus ec- 
clesiarum scabies** 

But the speaking of the Eternal Word is a con- 
ditional response to every one's spiritual vitality. 
The Eternal Word does not speak to those who 
are not spiritually prepared to be spoken to. 
Spirit to spirit. All spirit is mutually attractive. 

Christianity was certainly always potential in 



* "Cui AEternum Verbum loquitur, a multis opinionibus 
expeditur." De Imitatione Christi, Lib. I. 3. 



** 



The itch of disputation, the scab of the churches. 



10 INTRODUCTION 

man ; hence there mnst have been men and women, 
at all times, who had that degree of spiritual vital- 
ity, due to their coming into the world with bodies 
exceptionally favorable to that vitality, which 
made them nameless Christians ages before 
Christ. I shall speak further on of inherited 
physical bodies, as favorable or unfavorable to 
spiritual vitality. 

That Christianity existed before Christ, was the 
opinion of Saint Augustine, expressed in his Be 
Vera Religione, written early in the fifth century 
— an opinion which he had to retract, the Church 
claiming that man was newly inoculated, so to 
speak, with the eternal life offered by the Christ. 
(The words 'eternal' and 'everlasting', so fre- 
quently applied to 'life' in the Gospels and Epis- 
tles, have reference to the hind of life rather than 
merely to its endlessness. They are used as syno- 
nymous with ' spiritual, ' spirit being in its nature 
eternal. In this sense the eternal life may be rea- 
lized in this world. ) 

Augustine says : ' ' For the thing itself which is 
now called the Christian religion, was with the 
ancients, nor was it absent from the beginning of 



INTRODUCTION 11 

the human race, until Christ himself came in the 
flesh, whence the true religion which already was, 
began to be called Christian. For when, after the 
resurrection and ascension into heaven, the Apos- 
tles had begun to preach him, and very many be- 
lieved, first at Antioch, as it is written, disciples 
were called Christians (Acts xi. 26). Therefore 
I have said, this is, in our times, the Christian re- 
ligion ; not because it was not in former times, but 
because in after times it received this name. ' ' * 

All religions have been characterized by impreg- 
nable conservatism and intolerance of what was 
regarded as heretical. No power has been more 
despotic than organized religious power. This has 



* 'Nam res ipsa quae nunc Christiana religio nuncupatur, 
erat apucl antiquos, nee defuit ab initio generis humani, 
quousque ipse Christus veniret in carne, uncle vera religio 
quae jam erat, ccepit appellari Christiana. Cum enim eum post 
resurrectionem ascensionemque in coelum coepissent Apos- 
toli praedicare, et plurimi crederent, primum apud Antio- 
cham, sicut scriptum est, appellati sunt discipuli Christiani 
(Act. xi. 26). Propter ea dixi, hsec est nostris temporibus 
Christiana religio; non quia prioribus temporitus non fuit, 
sed quia posterioribus hoc nomen accepit.' Liber I, cap. xiii, 'S. 
Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi Retractationum Libri 
duo.' 



12 INTRODUCTION 

been true of every form of religion of which there 
is any record. The divine faculties of man, to 
quicken which should have been their chief objects, 
have been paralyzed by priesthoods for thousands 
of years. The conservatism of the Christian 
Church, and the dire consequences of non-confor- 
mity thereto, were a great obstacle, as I have said, 
to the progress of Science through several centur- 
ies. But the time has quite gone by when scien- 
tists feared to tread on religious ground, which 
all through the centuries was regarded as con- 
secrated, and from which the foot of the investiga- 
tor was excluded. The Curia of the Eoman Catho- 
lic Church, however, continues to make opposition 
to what it calls * Modernism,' and, mirable dictu, 
imposes restrictions upon scientific professors in 
its Seminaries, yet at the same time makes use of 
the wonderful applications of science to human 
life, without acknowledging any indebtedness 
thereto. 

Science has led to an extended belief in the uni- 
versal immanence of an informing, life-giving, im- 
personal spirit, infinitely spontaneous in its ac- 
tion throughout the material universe (with its 



INTRODUCTION 13 

countless millions of orbs, others being still in 
course of spontaneous formation), by virtue of 
which immanence, the universe is automatic in 
its action. There is no evidence whatever of any 
outside arbitrary management, in a human sense, 
nor of any direct special act of a personal God. 
There are personal agencies, in the form of ad- 
vanced human spirits, which are ever exerting a 
saving power in this world — a power, however, 
which is conditional with those who are suscepti- 
ble to it through their spiritual vitality. See the 
first of the spirit messages given in this book. 

Of this universal, spontaneously formative 
spirit, all individualized forms of life partake; 
they are inherent, potential in it, and have been re- 
alized whenever conditions have been favorable 
for the appearance of any of them. But it will be 
long before the general religious mind can be dis- 
possessed of the idea of an outward, omnipresent, 
consciously superintending power and it may be 
well that this idea be maintained by many minds. 

Included in the automatic action of the universe, 
are all rewards and punishments, which accord- 
ingly take care of themselves; and all classifica- 



14 INTRODUCTION 

tions in the spirit world, unlike the more or less 
arbitrary ones in this world, likewise take care of 
themselves, and they are numberless. See mes- 
sages dated Sept. 14. 

A not uncommon religious belief, but less com- 
mon at present, I trust, through the influence of 
Spiritualism, is that there are only two distinct 
classes in the spirit world, the ' saved' and the 
'lost', and that the condition of each class is per- 
manent. Spiritualism teaches a better doctrine, 
and so does common sense. 

There are many good people who believe heaven 
to be a state of perfect bliss ! Oh, to be in such a 
stereotyped state, if it were possible in the nature 
of things, who could reasonably desire! Eternal 
activity and progress must be the desire of every 
rational soul. 

Tennyson says of Virtue, in his beautiful little 
poem entitled ' Wages': 

' ' Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the 

wrong — 
Nay, but she aim 'd not at glory, no lover of glory 

she: 
Give her the glory of going on, and still to be. 



INTRODUCTION 15 

She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of 

the just, 
To rest in a golden grove, or to bask in a summer 

sky: 
Give her the wages of going on, and not to die." 

It may be (this is only a surmise, it could not 
be anything else) that the indwelling universal 
spirit, the ultimate substance, comes to conscious- 
ness only through the individualizations of itself, 
and is constantly and forever passing into num- 
berless millions of consciousnesses of incarnate 
beings ; and there are numberless millions of con- 
sciousnesses of excarnate human beings in the 
spirit world. 

If the unconsciousness of the universal spirit 
could be proved (it cannot be, nor yet disproved) 
the question would arise in numberless minds, 
what object of religious devotion is left for us 1 It 
could be answered : Man has the whole awful liv- 
ing universe as the object of his religious devo- 
tion. As an inseparable part of it, he should at- 
tain to that degree of spiritual vitality which his 
fealty to the whole demands. His sense of one- 
ness would, of itself, be devotion, for it would im- 



16 INTR OD UCTION 

ply a fulness of spiritual vitality of which devo- 
tion is the spontaneous result. For spiritual vi- 
tality must radiate and respond to the spiritual 
outside of itself. So that he who can attain to this 
sense of oneness, is truly ' filled with the Holy 
Ghost. ' 

Quickened as the universe is throughout its 
whole extent by the indwelling spirit, it has, and 
must have, one and the same life ; and every man 
has that within him which, when adequately quick- 
ened, responds to and claims kindred with this life, 
and is at home with it, and is thus assured that the 
life of the universe is spirit of which he himself 
partakes. 

Religion and worship would be wholly factitious 
if the human spirit and the universal spirit were 
not one and the same and mutually attractive. The 
distinction which has been made between the hu- 
man and the divine is baseless. The more one ad- 
vances in responsiveness, the more spontaneous 
he is, and the more he thus becomes a law to him- 
self. This is to advance to true freedom, to know- 
ledge absolute subject to no dispute — the know- 
ledge of spiritual consciousness , which is of a high- 



INTRODUCTION 17 

er order of knowledge than the knowledge of phe- 
nomena (appearances) of which the senses take 
account. The spontaneous, even unconscious re- 
sponse of man's spirit to the universal spirit is 
what his love of God should mean, as it does so 
mean; that is ' walking with God' in the highest 
sense. 

To the degree that one is in harmony with the 
spiritual constitution of the universe, to that de- 
gree will he be spontaneously religious. All great 
creative poets, more than men in general, have a 
sense of their kinship with the universal spirit 
hj reason of their exceptional spiritual vitality: 
they are born pantheists. Wordsworth certainly 
was, and so, too, was Tennyson — witness 'The 
Higher Pantheism,' 'Flower in the Crannied 
Wall,' 'The Ancient Sage,' etc.; and so was Walt 
Whitman, who was a great cosmic genius, with a 
deep cosmic consciousness. All the higher poetry 
is a revelation of this sense of kinship. 

Mankind have, more or less, a love of nature, 
which really means a spontaneous, an unconscious 
response, however slight that may be, to the in- 

3 



18 INTRODUCTION 

dwelling spirit. An insensibility to the charms of 
nature would indicate spiritual atrophy. 

Blessed is he who has * ' spirit-gifted eyes j 
Doubt not but he holds in view 
A new earth and heaven new. ' ' 

Our institutions of learning should do more for 
spiritual education, independently of what is gen- 
erally understood to be such an education, namely, 
an initiation into a system of creeds, dogmas, etc., 
as the necessary equipment for life's voyage. The 
intellect and the memory are almost exclusively 
exercised. The function of the higher literature, 
especially poetic and dramatic literature, is to 
bring into play the spiritual nature along with 
the intellectual, for literature proper is spiritualiz- 
ed thought, artistically expressed, as distinguish- 
ed from abstract thought, but it is not generally 
studied in the schools in a way to realize its true 
function. It is too frequently made a mere know- 
ledge subject. Too much scholarship is mixed up 
with and intruded upon the study, so that a work 
of genius is not allowed to make its own indepen- 
dent spiritual impression, which would certainly 



INTRODUCTION 19 

interest most students more than unnecessarily 
obtruded scholarship. 

Now in what does a true spiritual education con- 
sist! Its source is indicated in the following pas- 
sage from Browning's ' Paracelsus ' : 

' There is an inmost centre in us all 
Where truth abides in fulness; and around, 
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 
This perfect clear perception — which is truth ; 
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh 
Blinds it and makes all error ; and to know 
Bather consists in opening out a way 
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, 
Than in effecting entry for a light 
Supposed to be without.' 

No Lockian doctrine, this, of a tabula rasa, and 
of sensations transformed into ideas. By 'truth,' 
in this passage, is meant absolute, eternal truth, 
the truth which 'makes free,' gives freedom to the 
spiritual nature, which is more or less in bondage 
in the physical body. The interior man is indepen- 
dent of outward experiences in regard to absolute 
truth. 

There is comparatively but a small part of us 



20 INTRODUCTION 

which comes to consciousness in this life, however 
much we may be educated, in the common accepta- 
tion of that word, and however extended our out- 
ward and our inward experiences may be. Back 
of our conscious and active powers, is a vast and 
mysterious domain of unconsciousness — but a do- 
main which is, nevertheless, our true being, and 
which is more or less, according to the degree of 
our rectified attitudes, unceasingly influencing our 
conscious and active powers, and more or less de- 
termining us to act according to absolute stand- 
ards, rather than to relative and expedient stand- 
ards. 

All great natures (great by reason of their ex- 
ceptional spiritual vitality in cooperation with 
their intellects, such cooperation constituting real 
personality), must be more or less aware of this 
inward source, and have, in consequence, less re- 
gard for outward authority in spiritual matters. 
They have that within which tests outward author- 
ity, be it in a book regarded as inspired, or from 
any other source. 

I shall speak of what is called in the passage 
from ' Paracelsus, ' 'an inmost centre in us all 



INTRODUCTION 21 

where truth abides in fulness/ as 'the unconscious 
self.' The conscious self, in this life, in whatever 
degree it may be widened and deepened, must be 
very limited in comparison with the potential con- 
sciousness and faculty within us, which a future 
life will realize. 

Jesus regarded all men and women as the 
' Word made flesh,' the kingdom of God being, as 
he said, within them ; but the Word is more or less 
deeply buried and it was his special mission to re- 
surrect it. 'I am the resurrection and the life* 
(that is, I, a resurrected spirit, resurrect the bur- 
ied spirits of men, and thus give them spiritual 
life) he is represented as saying to Martha who 
had expressed to him, in regard to her brother, the 
prevailing belief (especially of the Pharisees, de- 
rived from the Chaldeans, during the Captivity) 
in a general resurrection of buried bodies at the 
last day. 

There is no resurrection of buried bodies ; but at 
physical death, the spirit body is resurrected, or 
rises out of the physical body. It is the spirit body 
which maintains the individual existence of the 
spirit after physical death. 



22 INTRODUCTION 

It is what a man draws from his unconscious 
self that is of prime importance in his true educa- 
tion in the literal sense of the word, not what is 
put into him. But in our system of so-called edu- 
cation it is all putting in, not drawing out. 

There are uprisings, at rare times, it may be, 
from our unconscious selves which cause us to 
'feel that we are greater than we know.' Walt 
Whitman asks, in his 'Leaves of Grass,' 

' Has never come to thee an hour, 

A sudden gleam divine, precipitating, burst- 
ing all these bubbles, fashions, wealth? 

These eager business aims — books, politics, 
art, amours, 

To utter nothingness! ' 



What an assurance such an hour gives of hid- 
den greatness, when 'the mortal limit of the self 
is loosed'! 

Such uprisings from the sub-self more or less 
subside; but the more frequent they become, by 
reason of an advance in spiritual vitality, the less 
are their subsidences, the uprisings becoming more 



INTRODUCTION 23 

and more a part of our permanent conscious 
selves, and attaining more and more to oneness 
with absolute being. 

The sympathetic, assimilative reading of great 
poets is among the efficient means of inducing 
these uprisings — sympathetic assimilative read- 
ing, not the study of them as pursued in the 
schools. The exclusive intellectual attitude, so 
generally taken, shuts off the spiritual element 
which is the true educating life of poetry, and de- 
mands a spiritual response, spirit to spirit. These 
uprisings give us intimations of immortality more 
evidential and assuring than can be derived from 
all merely intellectual 'evidences'. The subject of 
immortality is not, in fact, within the domain of 
the discursive intellect. 

An indispensable requisite of a teacher of liter- 
ature is a highly cultivated voice, a voice, too, 
whose intonation (the choral part of an interpre- 
tative voice) should be such as to evoke a response 
of his students to the spiritual element of the 
poem he is reading, along with the articulating 
thought which is received by their intellects. Ab- 
stract thought does not require to be vocally in- 



24 INTRODUCTION 

terpreted. It can be got through the eye. If it 
be read aloud, with proper grouping of the sec- 
tions of sentences, any ordinary voice would serve. 
Students' voices should be cultivated, and they 
should read much poetry aloud. The language of 
the higher poetry is more spiritualized than that 
of the drama. 

Wordless prayer (better than prayer of set 
words, which may become mechanical by being 
frequently repeated), the soul's ardent, aspiring 
desire, spontaneously exhaled, tends to arouse the 
unconscious self. Such prayer, without ceasing, 
is possible — a prayerful state of soul — but that is 
not easily attained to in this soul distracting 
world, 'dark with griefs and graves' — not graves 
of graveyards, but graves within men, in which 
their spiritual natures are buried — a world which, 
at present, sadly needs the rest offered by the 
great Eest-giver to those who labor and are heavy 
laden; a rest that is not the absence of activity, 
but a spontaneous, unimpeded activity of the spir- 
itual nature ; an activity derived from the Univer- 
sal Spirit, the tireless motive power of the uni- 
verse — a most busy rest, the rest of Peace. 



INTRODUCTION 25 

The earnest and experienced Spiritualist has an 
exceptional assurance, rather than a mere belief, 
that he is ' compassed about with so great a crowd 
of witnesses ;' and his assurance must much deter- 
mine the upright character of his life, knowing, 
as he does, that the good spiritual influence of 
these witnesses depends upon his soul's ardent, as- 
piring desire of righteousness, independently of 
any prayer of set words. Every one is responsi- 
ble, he knows, for the kind of spiritual company he 
keeps, and his desire is, therefore, for good com- 
pany. 

The infinite degrees of manifestation of the Uni- 
versal Spirit are determined by the infinite modes 
of its embodiment, conscious and unconscious, 
from the lowest to the highest, from vegetable 
forms up through all forms of animal life to the 
human body. All spirit is a unity, and its mani- 
festation depends upon the kind of embodiment. 
The highest form which has been evolved on this 
planet, and in which the universal Spirit can have 
the highest manifestation, is the human body ; and 
this ' fearfully and wonderfully made' organ of 
the spirit also presents its obstructions to the ac- 



26 INTRODUCTION 

tion of the spirit ; but it may be rendered less ob- 
structive according as one advances in spiritual 
vitality. Browning has characterized this obstruc- 
tion as 

'Some slight film, 
The interposing bar which binds a soul, 
And makes the idiot, just as makes the sage 
Some film removed. ' 

As the spirit advances in freedom, the spirit 
body, which is already in the physical body, being 
formed in the womb (the physical body being a 
materialization of it), is refined, and spiritualizes 
the physical body, and may even contribute to its 
longevity. It is composed, as I have been inform- 
ed by my spirit friends, of primordial, ultimately 
refined matter, which is permeated, in earth life, 
hy matter of a lower order. This latter is reduced 
In this world by a spiritual life, and the refinement 
=of the spirit body will be continued in the future 
life by the spirit's progress, which progress means 
an increase in its freedom, and only that, due to 
the increased refinement of its embodiment. Spirit 
itself, being the ultimate substance, (essence) can- 
not be evolved. 



INTRODUCTION 27 

' * So every spirit, as it is most pure, 

And hath in it the more of heavenly light, 

So it the fairer body doth procure 

To habit in, and it more fairly dight 

With cheerful grace and amiable sight; 

For of the soul the body form doth take ; 

For soul is form, and doth the body make. ' ' 

It should be added that as the spirit body ad- 
vances in refinement, it advances in vibrations, 
and passes accordingly to spheres in the spirit 
world of higher vibrations. That 's the real mean- 
ing of progress in the spirit world. Undeveloped 
spirits cannot bear the vibrations of spheres high- 
er than their own; but advanced spirits can de- 
scend through the lower spheres and into earth's 
atmosphere where they can remain, at the longest, 
only two or three hours. The spirits of my Band 
have so informed me. 

Materialistic phychology (a contradiction in the 
adjective) carries materialism to an extreme by 
wildly regarding consciousness as due to, and end- 
ing with, the dissolution of the mortal physical or- 
ganism. 

Embodiment is, indeed, a condition of conscious- 



28 INTRODUCTION 

ness ; and if the spirit had not an embodiment in- 
dependently of the physical body, consciousness 
would terminate with physical death. But there 
is a natural body and there is a spiritual body 
within the natural body (the latter being, indeed, 
a materialization of the former) ; and the spirit- 
ual body maintains the individual existence of 
the spirit after physical death. 

The spirit body as an organism independent of 
the physical body, has been as fully proved by 
Spiritualism as any established scientific fact has 
been proved. 

My friend and former colleague, Dr. Schiller, 
of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, truly says: 
" Matter is not that which produces consciousness, 
but that which limits it; material organization 
does not construct consciousness out of arrange- 
ments of atoms, but contracts its manifestation 
within the sphere which it permits. ' ' 

As I have stated in other words, the action of 
the spirit is more or less conditioned by the phy- 
sical body, which has as many degrees of fitness 
or unfitness for the action of the spirit as there 
are human beings on this planet. In one body the 



INTRODUCTION 29 

spirit may have a very exceptional freedom of ac- 
tion, and the result may be what is called a genius. 
Another body, instead of being, so to speak, a 
roomy and pleasant abode of the spirit, may be a 
Bastile dungeon, and the result may be what is 
called an idiot. But the spirit, in its essential, un- 
changeable nature, is the same in all bodies. 

What is called heredity has an entirely physical 
basis. So parents may transmit more or less 
bondage, or more or less freedom, of spirit to 
their offspring. One may improve his physical 
body as an organ of the spirit, and another may 
so impair his body as to make it more of a prison 
for the spirit. 

Bondage of spirit is what is properly meant 
by the (falsely-called) depravity of spirit. Total 
depravity is one of the five points of Calvinism. 
There can be no such thing as total depravity in 
the whole universe of mind and matter. It is one 
of the monstrous absurdities of theology. Spirit 
itself cannot be actually depraved: it is the same 
in the saint and the sinner : it is one with the Uni- 
versal Spirit. When the spirit is in a state of bond- 



30 INTRODUCTION 

age the animal nature is in control ; the senses are 
unchecked in their rule. 

What is called sin (which theologians have re- 
garded as an entity introduced into the human 
system by Adam and Eve 's eating the fruit of the 
tree of knowledge of good and evil, a Babylonian 
myth long earlier than the old Book of Genesis!) 
means simply imperfect realization, or non-reali- 
zation of the spiritual nature — a negation, not an 
entity — and has always existed and always will 
exist, in the very nature of things. It is no prob- 
lem at all, but an imposition of the mind upon it- 
self. In the sense of imperfect realization it may 
be said to exist in the whole vegetable and ani- 
mal world. There is no form of life, animal or 
vegetable, that realizes all that is potential in it. 
All forms of life are subject to separable accident, 
to that which does not essentially belong to them. 
Various forms of life existing together, necessar- 
ily interfere with each other and are mutual ob- 
stacles, along with numerous others, to the full 
realization of what is potential in them. Horti- 
culturists, pomologists, and agriculturists of the 
present day are doing what may be called mission- 



INTRODUCTION 31 

ary work among flowers and f ruits and all the pro- 
ducts of the fields, by freeing them from their 
separable accidents. The same may be said of 
the scientific improvement of all domestic ani- 
mals. Animals in a wild state realize more of 
themselves, perhaps, than domestic animals. 

Evolution, which has been going on forever 
throughout the Universe, implies, of course, invo- 
lution, and the latter means non-realization. 

If the intellectual and the spiritual nature of 
man were largely and coordinately developed 
(that would be geniusward), his sense of the one- 
ness of all things would keep pace with that de- 
velopment. It may be that some have attained 
to such a difficult co-ordination, and have conse- 
quently experienced what is said in the Hindu 
Upanishads : 

' They that see the Eeal in the midst of this Un- 
real, they that behold life in the midst of this 
death, they that know the One in all the changing 
manifoldness of this universe, unto them belongs 
eternal peace — -unto none else, unto none else. ' 

And so in the De Imitatione Christi: 'He to 
whom all things are one, and who draws all things 



32 INTRODUCTION 

to one, and sees all things in one, is able to be sta- 
ble in heart and to remain at peace in God. ' * 

They have a quickened divine instinct. When 
snch a state is reached, or even when it is ap- 
proached, mere opinions, creeds, and dogmas in 
religion, give place to it. The Eternal Word, that 
is, the universal divine manifestation, has spoken 
to him who has reached or approached this state. 
The Eternal Word is ready to speak to every 
one, but not every one is prepared to be spoken to. 
Such preparation should be the prime aim and 
end of education, worthy of the name, not merely 
the sharpening of the insulated intellect. 'The 
blindness of the intellect begins,' says Emerson, 
'when it would be something of itself. ' 

A university professor who is merely a good 
teacher, as distinguished from an inspiring edu- 
cator, may grow dim in the memories of some of 
his students, in after years. But if one who is an 
inspiring educator makes a contribution, so to 
speak, to a student's conscious being, due to open- 



* 'Cui omnia unum sunt, et qui omnia ad unum trahit, et 
ommia in uno videt, potest stabilis corde esse et in Deo paci- 
ficus permanere.' Lib. I cap. III. 



INTRODUCTION 33 

ing out a way by which some of his unconscious 
self is brought to consciousness, that student will 
hold him to his dying day in grateful remem- 
brance. This is one evidence that a widening and 
deepening of the conscious self is more satisfying 
to the soul than the mere acquisition of objective 
knowledge, however extensive that may be. The 
latter is not so life-giving as the former. 

A fulness of cooperative intellectual and spirit- 
ual life is the greatest of earthly attainments ; and 
he is the completest man who realizes it. A great 
dominancy of either makes life a lopsided voyage. 

Grateful beyond expression would be every stu- 
dent who could say to a former teacher as Dante, 
in the Divina Commedia represents himself as 
saying to his teacher, Brunetto Latini, ' M 'insegna- 
vate Come F uom S' eterna, (You taught me how 
man eternalizes himself), that is, attains to eternal 
life, or the life of the spirit, as eternal life always 
means in the Gospels. But, unfortunately, there 
are not legions of resurrecting teachers. Some 
only bury deeper the spirits of their students, by 
an excessive stuffing of them with all kinds of 

4 



34 INTRODUCTION 

.temporal knowledge, and by exercising only their 
intellects and memories. 

It should be the main function of ministers of 
the Gospel to induce conversion in their hearers 
rather than learnedly to expound texts from the 
Scriptures. Such function requires that the 
preacher be an inspiring personality, that is, one in 
whom the spiritual nature is highly quickened 
and ever cooperates with the intellectual. Such 
a one has a converting power. Clergymen, too, 
should have inspiring voices, exhibiting their spir- 
itual vitality; should have what Walt Whitman, in 
his poem entitled ' Vocalism/ calls 'the divine 
power to speak words,' 'to bring forth what lies 
slumbering forever ready in all words/ But this 
'divine power' is not developed as it should be, 
in theological schools. It would be more correct, 
perhaps, to say that it is not developed at all. 

In the 4th chapter of Luke, it appears that 
Jesus must have had 'the divine power to speak 
words.' After his reading from the book of the 
prophet Isaiah what is given in the 18th and 19th 
verses, beginning ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
me,' we are told that the eyes of all in the syna- 



INTRODUCTION 35 

gogue were fastened on him. I fancy that this fix- 
edness of attention on the part of his hearers was 
dne to the intonation of his voice which enveloped 
what he read in an electric anra. The whole de- 
scription is beautiful and dramatic. 

To return to the subject of conversion: what, 
indeed, is conversion? It is more than a convic- 
tion of sin, and a confession of belief in the creeds 
and dogmas of a church. Belief, of itself, in spiri- 
ual truths, avails little or nothing, without a reali- 
zation of them. It may be a purely intellectual ac- 
ceptance of them. The Greek word translated 
'believe,' in the Gospel (irLarevetv)^ means other 
than that; it means, to give a spiritual response 
to. The noun form, Tr/crw , is used sometimes as 
quite synon}anous with a^awr) , love, a responsive 
outgoing of the spirit. 

There's a beautiful example of conversion in 
the monologue of the Canon Caponsachi, in 
Browning's The Ring and the Book, wherein the 
canon sets forth to the judges the circumstances 
under which his soul was set revolving in a new 
orbit, after a life of dalliance and elegant folly, 
and made aware of the marvelous dower of the 



36 INTRODUCTION 

life it was gifted and filled with. The passage is 
one of the greatest in this great poem, and bears 
testimony to the poet's own sonl life, without 
which he could not have written it. 

De Quincey's interpretation of 'Repent ye, for 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand, ' the Greek orig- 
inal of ' repent' being Meravoelre, is equally ap- 
plicable to 'conversion': 'Wheel into a new centre 
your spiritual system; geocentric has that system 
been up to this hour — that is having earth and the 
earthly for its starting point ; henceforward make 
it heliocentric that is, with the sun, or the heaven- 
ly, for its principle of motion'. 

Our systems of public education in the United 
States result in a general olominancy, if not auto- 
cracy, of intellect, which is not conducive to public 
morality. This may be a startling statement to 
some minds; but it is quite true, as is evident at 
the present day. Some of our greatest criminals 
are intellectual sharpers with the lust for harm. 
I mean, of course, no condemnation of the noble 
faculty of intellect. Nor is it well to be a spiritual 
invertebrate in this earthly life. Man's powers 



INTRODUCTION 37 

must exert themselves in combination, if lie would 
have a well-balanced character. 

Psychology, as generally taught in the schools, 
tends to deaden a belief in the independent life of 
the spirit, rather than, as it should, to vitalize it, 
and it conduces more to materialism than does 
any other subject in the curriculum of studies. 
The physical body is treated as an automatic ma- 
chine (which, indeed, it is) but it is more, and the 
more is left out ! It is the temporary organ and 
abode of the immortal spirit. But the latter is 
regarded by many professors of the subject as a 
result merely of the physical organism and de- 
pendent upon it for its existence, which will end 
with the dissolution of the organism! The inde- 
pendent life of the spirit which has been scienti- 
fically proved by investigators into Spiritualism 
(it is no longer a matter of mere belief), is quite 
ignored. 

Spiritualism has contributed more to real psy- 
chology (i. e. the science of the soul), than have 
most of the professors of the subject in our uni- 
versities. This is not an extravagant statement. 
It was really against Professor William James, 



38 INTRODUCTION 

of Harvard University, that he was interested in 
Spiritualism and believed in and taught the in- 
dependent life of the spirit ! 

Among the greatest contributions to real psy- 
chology have been the Proceedings of the Society 
for Psychical Research and F. W. H. Myers's 
'Human Personality and its Survival of bodily 
death. ' The chapter on Genius, the third of the 
first volume of this great work is, of itself, a most 
valuable contribution. Genius was, perhaps, never 
before so satisfactorily characterized. 

Some materialistic anthopologists, prominent 
among them being Dr. Max ^Jordau, regard genius 
as a condition of degeneracy! Myers has shown 
that genius, with faculties in some degree innate 
in all, is ' rather a fulfilment of the true norm of 
man, with suggestions, it may be, of something 
supernormal — of something which transcends ex- 
isting normality, as one advanced stage of evolu- 
tionary progress transcends an earlier stage.' 

While Genius, as characterized by Myers, can- 
not be produced by education, education, in its 
true sense, should be conducted in the direction of 
genius. 



INTRODUCTION 39 

* Genius is the power of lighting one 's own fire, ' 
says John Foster, the author of 'On Decision of 
Character.' This is a clinamen toward a defini- 
tion. Thomas De Quincey, in his essay on John 
Keats, defines genius to be 'the synthesis of the 
human spirit with the human intellect, each act- 
ing through the other.' Such a definition is en- 
tirely acceptable, so far as it goes; but certainly 
the highest order of genius, such as that of 
Shakespeare or of Milton, must transcend this 
synthesis. Education might, and ought to do 
something toward such a synthesis. And such a 
synthesis, even if it were only partially realized, 
would do much for character in this life, and 
would be some preparation for the life to come — a 
preparation which the present systems of mere 
learning do not much to bring about. Spiritualism 
is doing great service toward such a preparation, 
as it teaches more of the constitution of the spirit 
world than does theology. It no longer needs an 
apologia pro vita sua. Its life has been nobly de- 
fended by its votaries against all attacks of its 
enemies, for the last sixty years. Nor does it 
longer need to notice the absurd explanations of 



40 INTRODUCTION 

its phenomena, made by 'the wise in their own 
conceit.' It need only to go on and do the great 
work which is before it, really the greatest work 
which is now to be done in the world — the great- 
est by reason of what is destined to be its results 
in freeing theology of its baseless traditions, 
many of them Babylonian, and the church, from 
its subjection thereto, and in bringing the spirit 
world into a more intimate relationship with this 
lower world. With the latter rest the conditions 
required for this more intimate relationship, one 
indispensable condition being the quickening of 
the spiritual nature along with what is now an 
almost exclusive cultivation of the discursive, 
non-intuitive intellect, in the general systems of 
education. I have already alluded to some of the 
means for inducing this quickening of the spiritual 
nature, which, apart from its being a condition of 
increased relationship with the spirit world, is an 
indispensable condition of the only true life in 
this world. The literature of Spiritualism, which 
is now greater, perhaps, than that of any other 
subject during the last sixty years, while it sub- 
stantiates spirit visitation, and the influence of 



INTRODUCTION 41 

the spirit world upon this, is an exponent of the 
most advanced religious thought of the present 
time, and is destined to transform, if not, perhaps, 
in time, do away with, theology, which has been 
maintained by a hierarchy, and to make the life of 
the spirit the all in all in religion, as it was the all 
in all with the founder of Christianity. There can 
then be a truly catholic, that is, universal, church 
which is one, spiritually, and diversified, intellec- 
tually. 

The salvation which Jesus taught comes from 
within, not from without. There could be no such 
thing in the nature of things as a vicarious atone- 
ment, an inheritance of Christian Theology from 
the Savage Past. Man can be at one with the Uni- 
versal Spirit only through his own spiritual vital- 
ity. That alone is salvation. Through that alone 
he becomes his own Saviour. He cannot reason- 
ably hope for a delegated responsibility. As says 
the German Mystic, Johann Scheffler (Angelus 
Silesius) : 

'Tho' Christ a thousand times at Bethlehem 
were born, 






INTRODUCTION 

And not within thyself, thy soul would be 

forlorn. 
The cross at Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, 
Unless within thyself it be set up again. * 



*Wird Christus tausendmal zu Bethlehem geboren, 
Und nicht in dir, du bleibst noch ewiglich verloren: 
Das Kreuz zu Golgotha kann dich nicht von dem Bosen, 
Wo es nicht auch in dir wird aufgericht't erlosen. 



SPIRIT MESSAGES. 



I. 

Good to forgive ; 

Best to forget ! 

Living, we fret; 
Dying, we live. 
Fretless and free, 

Soul, clap thy pinion ! 

Earth have dominion, 
Body, o'er thee! 

II. 

Wander at will, 

Day after day, — 

Wander away, 
Wandering still — 
Soul that canst soar ! 

Body may slumber : 

Body shall cumber 
Soul-flight no more. 

III. 

Waft of soul's wing! 

What lies above ? 

Sunshine and love, 
Skyblue and Spring! 
Body hides — where? 

Ferns of all feather, 

Mosses and heather, 
Yours be the care ! 

Eobert Browning. 



SPIRIT MESSAGES. 
9 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

At this first seance I did not know that the con- 
trol could adapt her rate of utterance to my writ- 
ing, until past the middle of the seance, when I ex- 
pressed the wish that I could take down the mes- 
sages verbatim. She then said she could wait, af- 
ter each phrase or sentence, for me to do so. The 
opening messages, as was usual, had come from 
my wife, the founder of the Spirit Band, my 
daughter, and two sons, which I could copy only 
imperfectly, the control speaking too fast for me. 

My wife had brought to the seance, Goldwin 
Smith, whom she had known many years, when in 
the body, and he being a distinguished visitor, and 
having recently passed to the spirit world, the 
members of the Band were much pleased to give 
place to him to deliver his message. In the spirit 
world, ' honor due and reverence none neglects,' 
as Milton says in the Paradise Lost. 

I was now able to take down his message ver- 
batim, and from that time on all the messages 
through the 24 seances. 

Nothing has been omitted or added in the mes- 
sages as they were given to me. They are given 



46 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

strictly verbatim, no improvement in any expres- 
sion throughout the whole series of seances was 
necessary. H. C. 

GOLDWIN SMITH. 

I believe the world would fall to pieces if it were 
not held together by the influences from the spirit 
world. There is so much of a disintegrating pow- 
er in the world, to-day, that the spiritual forces of 
man would be dissipated and lost if it were not for 
the continual outpouring of the spiritual fluid 
from this life. 

Much of my work needs finishing touches, and 
putting in order; and I had set myself about the 
task of doing it, but it was never finished.* And 
now other hands than mine must finish the work, 
I mean my Reminiscences. N They are in such shape 
that they can be adjusted, but it will not be by my 
hand.** 

Goldwin Smith. 



* He fell and broke his hip on February 2, 1910, and was no 
longer able to give the finishing touches to his Reminiscences. 
He passed June 7, 1910. 

**The editing of the Reminiscences was left to Arnold Haul- 
tain his secretary for more than 17 years. In a letter received 
from him, he writes "Some time before his death, Mr. Gold- 
win Smith in an agreement signed by himself and myself, and 
duly attested, appointed me his sole literary executor; and, 
in order to enable me to carry out that trust, put me in pos- 
session of 'all his writings and manuscripts.' " r-v 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 47 

10 SEPTEMBER 1910. 
Pauline Henkiette Cokson. 

Oh, it is such a joy to come to you and speak in 
this clear and definite way. You know that we are 
always near you, always at your call; and yet, to 
be able to express some of the things we have long 
wanted to tell you, is a joy to all of us. First, I 
want to tell you about our home. Something we 
have never talked much about is the capacity to 
see you even while we are busy and concerned in 
the affairs of the life we now lead. We have a pow- 
er not possessed by mortals of seeing long distan- 
ces, and through opaque substances. Solid matter 
has no power to obstruct our view. Consequently, 
wherever we are, we are able to see you and know 
what you are about. We are not obliged to be 
present in the room where you are, in order to be 
conscious of your thought or attitude; but when 
we desire to express something to you, we draw 
near, in the same normal and natural way as we 
should if we were in the physical world. 

It seems as if the eye of the spirit had telescopic 
power, and microscopic power as well. So you 



48 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

see, father dear, that we have added powers which 
help us to bear the separation which seems always 
so hard for mortals who do not understand the 
progressive steps or changes from death into life 
eternal. 

I do not mean to tell you how much I love you ; 
that }^ou know, and may rest in for ever and ever; 
but to tell you of my active life, my power to bring 
things into your life, and the understanding of the 
law which keeps us all together. 

When Mamma first came over here, she was so 
uneasy over you. She felt you needed her, and 
she talked about it all the time. She used to say, 
* Pauline, what can I do. v I feel as if I had left 
him alone to live out his life, and I so much want 
to have him with me here/ But now she is bet- 
ter content, and is satisfied to wait until the day 
comes when you will open the door and walk into 
the new life with the energy which has been stor- 
ed up within you, by your understanding of the 
spiritual law.' [The control speaks: 'Then that 
daughter of yours just stoops over you and draws 
your head right over on her shoulder and whis- 
pers to you that you look just as young and hand- 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 49 

some to her as you did when she was here. She 
sees no sign of age about you, only the wonderful 
spirit that actuates you, does she see, and she 
loves that spirit." 

There is a music box ; don 't you have that play, 
sometimes, for your seances? (Yes,.) Well, Paulie 
speaks of that, and says she loves that. There is 
one piece of music from an opera that she loves 
the best of all that is in that music box. There is 
a march which Mr. Brooks likes. It is something 
like a grand processional.] 

Paulie. 

CAEOLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

Help me to say all that is in my heart. The 
sweet associations of the past crowd in upon me 
now, as I stand here speaking to you from this 
glorious life that is all about me. 

It was a great cross to us that our sons were 
not spared;* and yet, when I found them here so 
highly developed, so real, and so like men, I felt 
quite content that they had preceded me ; and you 
will feel just as I did when you come over where 

* They both passed in babyhood, 54 and 48 years ago. 



50 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I am. They are still studying and working, and 
tell me in confidence that they have so much they 
want to do before you come. Mr. Whitman * has 
been like a father to them, and they love him sin- 
cerely and he has grown through his service to 
them, which was rendered first for love of you, 
now combined with a devotion to them. 

Mr. Whitman was a much misunderstood man; 
and you, with your quick comprehension of his 
message and his power, helped him to receive re- 
cognition from others, and he never will forget 
it. When he first met me, over here, his first 
words were, 'my dear friend, how glad I am to 
welcome you;' and then, with tears in his eyes,** 
he said, all that I had of recognition I owe to him ? 
(meaning you). 

After I had had some long talks with my father, 
** # who had been gone so long, he told me that 
many, many times he had been to our home and 
had tried to manifest there. 



* Walt Whitman, the poet, who passed in 1892. 
** The Control said: That's only a mode of expression. 
The spirit does not shed tears. 
*** Francois Antoine Rollin. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 51 

The boys hardly wanted me to leave their pres- 
ence, a moment. They had had a mother's care 
from your mother. They call her Mother Corson. 
But they always knew that I was the mother. 
They had been taught that. And let me say right 
here, dear, that no one can usurp the place which 
belongs to another! Motherhood is always moth- 
erhood ; and the children waited in understanding 
and knowledge of the coming parent. 

The control: Your wife speaks of your boy 
alive. She thinks much of him, and often goes to 
see him. But he is not sure of her visits. He 
would be glad to be sure, but is not sure, of her 
presence. But she does not forget him; and if 
she could do anything to help him, she would. He 
ought to understand this philosophy. It would 
help him in his profession. 

I see a little girl of his. Her name begins with 
M (Mildred?) 'Yes.' She is a medium, she is so 
psychic. She is very like her grandmother Cor- 
son. Your wife says : I never could say all I wish 
to say, with a little smile on her face. 

Caeeie. 

One of your boys, Joseph, just comes forward 



52 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

with all the strength and beauty that come from a 
purely spiritual life, and he says : 

How can I express to you how glad we all are 
to have you take this journey to talk with us ! It 
will help you through many of the long lonely 
hours of the winter; but, father, if you could see 
us in the home, you would never have a lonely 
moment. It is not alone in the seance room that 
we come, but we are with you, some of us, every 
hour of the day. Somebody is always on guard, 
and you have some beautiful spirits, long gone 
from the Earth life, who are guides to you. They 
were there around you when we came over here, 
long, long ago. I think they were there when you 
were a very young man, when you first began to 
philosophize on these subjects. 

Joseph Corson. 

[The Control: Your boys love your uncle 
Alan,* a Quaker. He had the essence of this truth, 
of spirits hovering near mortals; and while he 
was no fighter, he would stand for his faith as 



* Alan W. Corson, a mathematician and a scientist, who 
passed in 1882, in his 85th year. He was a strong abolitionist, 
and for many years would not make use of the products of 
slave labor. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 53 

staunch and firm as any soldier, in the army of 
the Lord. He is a wonderful spirit, and your boys 
are very fond of him, and they learn much from 
him. He takes them on long walks through woods 
and country of the spirit world, and shows them 
the wonderful manifestations of the great spirit, 
the Spirit of Life, the Energy. Your uncle Wil- 
liam is with Alan. He did not have the same 
capacity which Alan had, but he loved him, and 
would do anything he could for him, was proud of 
him. Hiram is with them. That book of his is 
authoritative. He spent a great deal of time on 
it.* 

They wanted to send a word to yua while there 
was a chance, because the Corsons are in a man- 
ner clannish, and they don't want to be left out. 
They cling to you, and they want recognition. 
Your Uncle Jacob is here. He is one of those 
wholesome and good, and strong as he can be; 
and he wants to speak of your mother, because 

* 'The Corson Family: A History of the Descendants of 
Benjamin Corson, son of Cornelius Corson of Staten Island, 
New York, By Hiram Corson, M. D. William and Hiram Cor- 
son were physicians, the latter distinguished in his profes- 
sion, which he practiced for more than sixty years, passing in 
1896, in his 92d year. 



34 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

she is so happy to come. You'll be glad to know 
she is having so much peace and quiet. She work- 
ed so hard when she was here. She was very 
proud and wanted all the best that could come to 
her children. 

11 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

Before you go back home I want to give you 
some messages ; but, to-day, we all stand aside un- 
til Mr. Browning gives you his message. F. W. H. 
Myers. 

The control : The first thing Mr. Browning does 
is to clasp your hands and look into your eyes ; and 
he says : 

This is one of the happiest experiences of my 
many beautiful ones with you. It is always a joy 
for a man to meet a man whose impulses and in- 
spirations are like his own. So you can well un- 
derstand my pleasure in coming to you. 

Although I am largely read and generally ap- 
proved, it was not always so; and I had to work 
my way into the hearts of the people, or rather in- 
to their comprehension. I know what you will 
say, my friend, their comprehension had to grow 



ROBERT BROWNING 55 

to meet my expression. Be that as it may ; to-day, 
the understanding of my lines is only possible by 
those who have felt the touch of the Infinite Spirit 
and heard the voice of the angelic host. 

I wish I were able to express to you all the won- 
drous beauty of the life over here. But you will- 
come by and bye, and then it will be my pleasure 
to go with you, and enjoy with you some of the 
beauties of the spirit kingdom. Your wife is often 
our companion through old scenes and associa- 
tions,* and a most agreeable companion she is, for 
she excels in the power of conversation. 

I am still interested in the world and in states- 
manship, and all the powers that hold nations to- 
gether; but you well know that I prefer to keep 
just outside the circle of political influences, and 
shoot my arrow over the heads of the ring masters 
and touch the centre beyond. 

I was interested to watch our late King** when 
he came over here — he who had been the idol of 
the idle, he who had been the courtier of the 



* He means Earthly scenes and associations. My wife 
knew him when in the body. 
** King Edward VII. 



56 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

court, and lie who found his Kingship after long 
years of dissipation and commonplace life. Like 
ordinary men he had to come among us without 
pomp or ceremony, or any of the things that spoke 
of his greatness by birth; and like a true Briton, 
he accepted his place, and smiled graciously on his 
friends. It was a surprise to him to find himself 
relieved of the burdens of state ; but to those who 
were concerned with the Kingdom, pre-eminently 
Mr. Gladstone, there was no surprise. I only 
speak of this as one of the instances of interest to 
some of us over here. 

It is as interesting to see a man of degree, ap- 
parently, from the world's standpoint, slip into 
his place of spiritual height and understand him- 
self at once. 

The one thing that stands out more definitely to 
the thinkers of the race, is the classification of 
spirits by their Earth expressions.* They slip in- 
to the class to which they belong as naturally and 
normally as rain falls into running brooks and be- 



* There's an automatic, so to speak, classification of spirits 
according to their spiritual progress in Earth life. It will be 
seen that the word 'expression,' is used in all the messages, in 
the general sense of life manifestation. 



ROBERT BROWNING 57 

comes a part of the great water system of the 
world. 

Most poets have a sense of the unfitness of 
things in human life, and the cry of their souls af- 
ter adjustment becomes the song that soothes the 
heart of the nation. 

You well know that many of these things I felt, 
and tried to express; and with all the gratitude 
and love at my command, I sign myself your 
friend, Bobert Browning. 

The Control: Immediately behind him comes 
his little wife, and she says : 

u We are so happy to think how this has all been 
brought about. God's hand is in all friendships, 
and his fingers close fast into the fingers of our 
loved ones. 

It is wonderful to think of, but we who stand in 
the light of the revealed life, see an explanation 
for all the intricate paths that cross and recross 
the lives of our human friends. 

We are so happy to have our lives written, and 
are happy to have you give so much information 
to our dear Lilian,* and through that friendship 

* Miss Lilian Whiting, who was, at the time, writing the 
combined lives of Robert and Mrs. Browning. 



58 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

of yours and hers, we are able to come and make 
this human touch with you. It's good, so good, to 
be with those you love; to feel the very heavens 
stoop low; enfolding, as a lily, in white clouds 
from above, all the sweet influences, and bringing 
perfect peace. 

Sometime, I hope to bring a verse to you and 
lay it on the altar of our precious friendship ; for 
you must know that whoever holds Robert's af- 
fection, holds mine too. We are one and indivisi- 
ble, to-day, as always. 

Bless you for all the brave words you have 
spoken in defense of this truth which to me was 
the only explanation of life. 

Elizabeth B. Browning. 

ALFRED TENNYSON. 

I give you greeting, dear brother Corson. I do 
not want to take a moment from your heart's 
treasures,* but this place was assigned me.** You 
see, dear friend, every thing that comes to you is 
systematized and orderly, because it is as it should 

* My own four, wife, daughter, and two sons. **The Band 
had arranged in regard to the order in which the members of 
it were to give their messages. 



ALFRED TENNYSON 5 g 

be for a man of your habits. When we come to 
you in your home, we are as regular as the sun, 
and never miss the time or the place ; and we are 
trying to have this series of interviews as orderly 
and perfect as those at your home. 

I cannot express to you the joy it is to find a re- 
sponsive spirit in the world of mortals. So long 
it mourned its dead as if there were nothing but 
dumb lips, and deaf ears, and sightless eyes, and 
vacant places, that the very thought of a message 
was doubtful and displeasing ; and so we were put 
away like some rare treasure to wait until a day 
dawned when the door of our dark hiding place 
would be opened, and we should once more be re- 
vealed. But to be able to come in a human way to 
a human heart, is joy unspeakable. We do ap- 
preciate your effort to give us pleasure at the 
home,* and the house is never empty and never 
silent to us, for the whispers of the dead are 
there ; I mean of course, the supposed dead. 

I often stand in your library and look over your 
books, and am as much at home as if I were in my 

* He alludes to the private seances at my home on Thurs- 
day evenings, the Medium being my Swedish housekeeper, 
Matilda Sjoegren. 



60 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

old surroundings, and much more at home than I 
am in Westminster Abbey, although I suppose I 
would have felt chagrined had I been put in an or- 
dinary grave. 

The honors England heaps upon her dead lau- 
reates have to be slipped out from under, in order 
to get a breath of free air. 

I am still writing poetry and often read it to a 
little company of kindred spirits and enjoy their 
criticism and their praise just as much and more 
than I could have done in the world, for then I 
was supersensitive and ambitious, and now I have 
lost all that. 

We have a niche for you, not in the Poet 's Cor- 
ner, but where you can stand and view each of us 
from our respective places, and pass upon us in 
your own inimitable way. I think I shall not be 
afraid to submit to you the work of my thought 
and spirit when you get here. 

The drives* we take with you are like hours of 



* All the members of the Band, and a large number of 
invited friends, among them being Indian spirits invited by 
Longfellow, accompany me in my occasional drives through 
the fine scenery in the vicinity of Ithaca. They appear to have 
a special enjoyment in these drives. They speak of them af- 
terward in the stances. 



ALFRED TENNYSON 61 

recreation and mirth, with that undercurrent of 
harmonious relationships and joy which beauty 
brings; and from our various scenes of work we 
come to join you with pretty much the sense of 
having been released from school. 

Now, with your permission, I withdraw, that 
your wife may give her message to you. 

Tennyson. 
CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

I was here, last night, and tried to have you 
feel that I was in the room, and with you when 
you came back for the night. When you went out 
of the room, we went away for a little to get a 
change and bring fresher magnetic currents to 
you, and we went home* and found everything all 
right there, but the home looks empty without you, 
and we don 't care to stay there ; it is the people, 
the human hearts that hold spirits to Earth, not 
beautiful scenes, or familiar places. If you were 
never to return to the old home, I would have but 
a passing interest in the place. But you will go 
back again, and the old life will be resumed, and 
we shall have our Thursday seances as usual. 

* The home in Ithaca, Cascadilla Cottage. 



62 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Mrs. Sjoegren has already been fixing up your 
room, taking things out to air, and having several 
little things done while you are away. 

She is getting ready to put up some grapes. She 
was looking at some of them to see how they were 
getting along. She has a way of putting them up 
in your favorite way, and she takes them when 
they are just about a certain point for the purpose. 
They are not quite ready yet ; they will be in a few 
days. 

I want to tell you this, because it is a story you 
are never tired of: my interest and love for you 
is as fresh and strong as it was the first of my days 
with you. You always allowed me perfect free- 
dom to express myself in every way, and I believe 
I gave you the same freedom, and therein lies the 

ret of our calm, beautiful, and expressive life. 
We saw other people, in many instances, fail to 
get out of their lives what it seemed God intended 
them to get; but we, through mutual cooperation 
and ^dependant action, accomplished many 
things which otherwise we could not have done. 

Mr. Longfellow and I are very close friends, 
and his charming wife I know and love. 5 ou 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 63 

should see some of the results of his work. He 
saw only the beautiful in every thing. If it were 
the Indian race which most people thought on as 
only common, dirty, undeveloped humanity, or an 
Arab steed which men prized for speed, he saw 
beauty and spirit, and made poetry of it. Yes, 
who but Longfellow could have made an immortal 
poem on a rainy day, and various subjects of that 
sort. 

He is very gallant and kind to me, and often 
with a merry twinkle in his eye, he refers to work 
I did for him, and asks me if I think it was worth 
while. He is referring to 'Hyperion/* you know, 
and I always reply that it was worth while, and 
let it rest there. 

Everything that I did in my life, in the way of 
intellectual attainment, I am glad of; but I could 
wish that I had taken the spiritual interpretation 
of life just as literally as you have always done. 
You were a little ahead of me in that way. You 
made it a part of every expression of your life, 
and believed always in the perfect expression 

* She translated 'Hyperion' into French, and portions of 
'Hiawatha' into German, in the original trochaic tetrameter 



64 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

being possible ; while I sometimes had my doubts, 
and was willing to wait till I got to the other side. 

You had little patience, at times, with those who 
denied the reality of spirit communications. I 
was more patient about it, perhaps because it did 
not mean quite so much to me as to you. But now 
that I am over here, I see that the spirit message 
and the spirit communion, and the interpenetrat- 
ing power of spirit life, are of supreme impor- 
tance, and should come first and become the foun- 
dation on which all our Institutions are builded, 
and our structures of life erected. 

But our love that held us together through all 
the years, is the golden chord which binds us now. 
-And when your eyes open x on this life, I hope mine 
will be the first smile to greet you. Carrie. 

PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON. 

I think there will be more or less effort between 
us all to give you the first greeting. If mamma 
gives you the first smile, I shall claim the first 
kiss, and the boys can each take a hand, and in that 
way we shall make a grand triumphal march to 
our spirit home. 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 65 

This is only a bit of my fun, father ; but I want 
you to think of me as loving you in a human daugh- 
terly fashion, with a pride that is a big as I can 
well carry, for the best father in all the world. 

Paulie. 

EMIL CORSON. 

Father, if we could not see you, and hear you 
speak to us, we should be quite lonely for a fa- 
ther's love; but as it is, we are happy and look 
forward to your coming. 

You looked quite as though you needed me this 
morning. I wanted to come in and help you get 
ready for breakfast, and then go out with you ; but 
all I could do was to precipitate strength and 
stand around and see if it took ; and I guess it did, 
for you seemed to get along all right after break- 
fast. 

I want to be the first of the family to thank Miss 
Whiting for her kind attention to my dear father ; 
and Miss Kate Field* has asked me to give you 
her greetings and tell you that she is with the 



* Miss Whiting wrote the Life of Kate Field. They were 
intimate friends for several years before Miss Field's decease. 



66 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Browning group, and loves them and knows you 
through them. Emil. 

FBANCIS E. BENNETT. 

Kind Friend, how can I say to you what I want 
to say? Your friendship was such a treasure to 
me; and all the months of my sickness I looked 
forward to your calls and your messages, and I 
wanted to live. But just as soon as I was free 
from the worn-out physical body, I was glad it 
was over. Death is not a hard master. Some 
times our own struggles make it hard for the 
angel to lead us through the gate; but the firm 
hand always takes us to a place of safety in God's 
kingdom. N 

Thank you for the flowers. The Control : She 
shows me some tall flowers. They look like gladi- 
oli. She calls your housekeeper by her first name, 
and says, 'she has proved all right, hasn't she'!* 

Fkancts E. Bennett. 



* It was through Miss Bennett, who was a patient at the 
time, at Clifton Springs, N. Y., that I secured the services of 
my Swedish housekeeper, Mrs. Matilda Sjoegren, whom she 
called Tilly. 

12 SEPTEMBEE, 1910. 
The Control : What I say is not so important as 



. WALT WHITMAN 67 

what the friends say ; but they could not speak so 
definitely unless I were here. So I am some good. 
They heard you ask if they were all here, and they 
responded : the wife and the children and the near 
family friends with love-light in their eyes, and 
the other friends with a bright light of interest, 
and a desire to communicate more definitely their 
thought and their feelings toward you. Mr. Whit- 
man comes first to send his message. He looks so 
robust and sturdy, you would hardly expect those 
fine violin strains to come from him until you per- 
chance caught a look at his sensitive mouth, or 
heard the vibrant tones of his voice. His voice 
changed as often as his mood changed, and he 
himself was a creature of many tones, and each 
one expressed itself through a resonant body. 

WALT WHITMAN. 

Give me your hand, friend, and let me sit be- 
side you, while I recall some of the blessed experi- 
ences of the past, and speak to you of my present 
existence which is so full and free. 

Freedom for the soul was my battle-cry; and T 
knew right well that a soul dwelling in absolute 



68 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

freedom would speak the mighty Swan's songs of 
God. 

It was a comfort to me to find that I had not 
been wholly misunderstood when I came over here, 
for I had many kind friends waiting to receive 
me, and piping back to me the lines my brain had 
writ. 

It was no small favor you did for me, long ago, 
and my appreciation of your appreciation has 
found expression in service to the boys.* They 
call me Father Whitman, and I am as proud as if 
they were children of my loins. Often I have felt 
that I would like to sit down in your library and 
talk over the life of reality over here. Few peo- 
ple live; many people flutter and fly from tree to 
tree where fruit is ripest, and fill their stomachs, 
and forget the real purpose of life. 

It was to that class my anathemas would be 
hurled ; but they need nothing from me except that 
I let my light shine so that when the shadow falls 
across their lives some gleam may be there for 
their help in a bewildering situation. We have a 



* My two sons, Joseph and Emil, who died in babyhood, 
one, 54, the other 48 years ago. 



WALT WHITMAN 69 

goodly company of them over here, and they re 
tard the growth of the souls in your life, just as 
much from here as if they were still embodied. 
There seems to be no discrimination in the power. 
Just as fools have hands and jackasses can kick 
higher and harder than the ordinary horse, so 
these spirits of fool capacity and jackass obstina- 
cy can use their hands and their kicking power to 
upset some of our best laid plans. 

I used to feel that all my energy ought to be 
spent for the benefit of mortals, that is, after I 
came over here ; but now I am content to use my 
influence among those who have migrated from 
your sphere, except now and then when I feel an 
intense longing to help some one whom I have 
known and loved. 

I am still writing; and I want to tell you, my 
kind friend, that as long as there are people in any 
sphere of existence, there must be poets and lovers 
of poets. It is not a lost art in the spirit land, but 
a perfected one. So you will not be without an 
occupation when you come over here, nor will you 
be laid on the shelf as you sometimes feel you are, 
to-day; but all this study and observation, and 



70 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

learning of yours will be like so much power in 
your spirit life. 

Your wife and your boys are fitting up a library 
over here for you; and everything they can find 
that is worthy, they put into it. So you will not be 
hungry for your books. And Paulie has been 
painting some beautiful things; for her artistic 
spirit expresses itself that way. 

I am going with you, tomorrow, and we are go- 
ing to have a big company of Indians out of re- 
spect to Mr. Longfellow, accompany you so that 
no harm can come to you.* Have no fear you are 
not going to ride home to glory in an automobile.** 
Nothing less than a golden chariot will do for you. 
This is only a bit of my fun to relieve the tension 
of your mind, because of the possible danger of 
the devil's vehicle. That is a name I give it; so 
when I speak of it again, sometime, you'll know 
what I mean. But, seriously, men fought steam 



* I had arranged, it being the 56th anniversary of my mar- 
riage, to visit Mr. Longfellow's home in Cambridge, known 
as the Craigie House, formerly Washington's headquarters. 
All the Band were to accompany me, and Longfellow's Indian 
spirits and other invited spirits. 

** I had shown great fear of the automobiles. They were 
so numerous in the city, I feared to cross the streets. 



WALT WHITMAN 71 

engines with the same fear ; but they were obliged 
to run their cars on tracks, and through pasture 
lands where a cow, now and then, was their only 
victim. Human life is sacrificed so cheaply now ; 
but if people care no more for it (human life) than 
to constantly put it in danger, eventually some 
stronger power will take a part in the proceed- 
ings and stay the awful havoc. 
[The control: He turns now and points to a pic- 
ture, one of himself, as though it were one that 
had been sent you, not by him, but by some 
friends.* And right near that is a picture of Mr. 
Longfellow, in his very best attitude, smiling and 
serene.] 

Whitman continues : I longed to see you during 
those last days of my earthly life, but at the very 
end I went away quite easily and unafraid. At 
first I fretted and wanted to stay, and then I 
wanted to go ; and I am now with my own, those 
I loved who went before me. 

One word more ; I must not take too much of the 



* A picture of Whitman, his autograph and 1891 beneath it, 
was sent to me by some friends to whom I had been reading 
Whitman's poems. 



72 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

time, but I want you to feel I am your brother and 
friend, and that the happiness I receive from your 
cordial reception giveth me joy. Good-bye. I will 
come again before you go away. And I am to be 
here every day whether I speak or not. 

Walt Whitman. 

LONGFELLOW. 

I would like to say just a few words before you 
go, tomorrow. It is a joyous occasion for us all, 
and the effort you have made to get there pleases 
me more than I can express ; and all the Band are 
going, and all those Indian friends who have come 
with me so often in the past.* Don't forget that 
Craigie House is an old revolutionary domicile; 
and when you are standing in the study window, 
look out across the Charles and see what my in- 
spiration was many many times. I want you to 
look at some of my books and my pictures and 
mementoes of Italy. They are there, and some 
statues are there. 



* He alludes to their coming with him when the Band and 
invited friends accompanied me in my drives, which I have 
spoken of in a former note. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 73 

And right here I want to tell you that Beecher, 
that famous fighter for the rights of the black man, 
has given you a call on several occasions, and told 
me that if he had been as outspoken for the truth 
which you understood so well, and which he com- 
prehended, in a measure, he might have done more 
good in this specific direction. I often made it 
plain in my poetry, that I believed the spirits of 
the dead were about us. It was the only hope that 
saved me from the deepest despondency when the 
frightful tragedy* came into my life. 

You have a more beautiful University geo- 
graphically than we had, but Harvard is dear to 
me; and I would gladly speak my love to some of 
my co-workers whose heads are so deep in the fog 
of material things that they fail to see the hands 
stretched down from the heavens, filled with the 
gifts of the Eternal One. I won 't say good night^TT 
just adieu, for a moment. \J 

Longfellow. 

* Mrs. Longfellow was accidentally burned to death, in the 
summer of 1861. She was engaged in sealing up some small 
packages of her two little girls' curls which she had just cut 
off. From a match fallen upon the floor, her light summer 
dress caught fire, and she was so burned that she died the 
next morning. Longfellow in his endeavors to save her, was 
himself so burned that he could not attend the funeral to 
Mount Auburn. 



74 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Here we are, Paulie, Joseph, Emil, and myself, 
to give yon onr daily greeting. Oh, we are having 
snch a wonderful visit, and we are so happy ; bnt 
we don't want you to get too tired. Already this 
room is highly magnetized, and before yon leave 
it, it will seem like home. 

Everything is all right at home; and it will be 
all the sweeter when yon get there, for this ab- 
sence, which has brought so rich a gift to you. I 
have been all the morning visiting Mr. Longfellow 
in his spirit condition ; and the Indians who are to 
escort you, tomorrow, are as proud of the duty as- 
signed them as if they were escorting a king. 

Paulie is so full of enthusiasm for everything 
she sees; and she says father does not have the 
flowers here as at home, but we have so many 
other things to see and do that we never miss that 
breakfast call.* Now Joseph takes Paulie by the 
arm, and he says she did not know she had two 
such big brothers till she came over here. She 
knew it but she did not realize it. And he says : 
We decided to speak first and let Emil have his 



* They all visit me, at home, every morning at breakfast. 
Flowers are always on the table. 



EMIL CORSON 75 

last words this time. Emil says, I always have 
the last word. I guess it is because I am good- 
natured and let them speak first; but we are a 
happy group. No matter how much we chaff each 
other about first and last messages. 

Oh, mamma wanted to tell you something, and 
I am going to do it for her. She has always 
wanted to thank you for everything you did while 
she was ill ; and especially for the way you carried 
out each wish of hers after her passing. At first, 
she was lonely for you, and when she saw you go 
into the room where she had been sick, and stand 
there and think about her, she said she would 
give anything to be able to put her arms around 
you and tell you how close she was to you. And 
then, after a while, when you had the room fixed, 
and the seances began, she began to be happier; 
and now she feels quite content. 

You know how mamma loved Italy; but she 
loved Cascadilla Cottage more; and she says now, 
there is no more beautiful spot in the whole world 
than Cascadilla Cottage. 

You can't conceive of all the things I think of 
to say, when I am away ; and then when I get here, 



76 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

they all form themselves into one sentence : I love 
you, father ; and aronnd that I give my other fee- 
ble messages. 

Upstairs, in the chamber at home, where the 
windows face the west, I love to stand and look 
out across the valley toward the setting sun, and 
see the wonderful beauty as I listen to the water 
[of Cascadilla Creek] and it's beautiful, and I 
love it. Sometimes standing there, I see the eve- 
ning star sink out of sight ; and I think that is like 
Paulie's life, and that the fainter lesser stars are 
like Joseph and me. 

You caught Paulie's spirit and beauty while 
she was here; but she followed the setting sun, 
and slipped away from you ; but Joseph and your 
Emil you'll have to wait till you see over here to 
understand how bright and brilliant their lives 
have become. Mother says that it will be the joy 
of your soul to have us by your side, living reali- 
ties, calling you father, and responding to that 
dearest word, son. 

Good night, father dear, we will all come again 
> tomorrow. Mr. Myers will speak to you tomorrow. 

Emu, 



F. W. H. MYERS 77 

13 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control : So much they want to say, to-day. 
It seems as. though each time they come, they think 
of more and more they want to say. Mr. Myers 
is going to say a few things to you first, and then 
the family messages can come at the end. 

F. W. H. MYERS. 

Here I am to give you greeting from the other 
side of the curtain, which does not fall as a heavy 
pall between us, but rather serves as a reflector 
on which some of the heart's finest messages may 
be displayed. 

Several times since your coming here, I have 
thought I would speak from the scientific side of 
this question; but strangely enough, when I come 
to sit here opposite you, talking face to face with 
you, I feel more as if I could speak only of the 
beauty of such interviews as these. Still, there 
is a time for the scientific discussion of the prob- 
lem ; and you will remember that I made great ef- 
fort to bring the personal relations into scientific 
expression, that the world might have a founda- 



78 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

tion for its belief or disbelief, whichever it felt 
best about doing at getting the exact facts. 

I have always contended that the better way to 
get evidence (I mean exact evidence of human 
personality surviving death) was, to let whatever 
would, come, and then sift the result ; and invaria- 
bly there would be plenty of data to support the 
theory. This has been a wonderful revelation to 
me ; the whole expression from your Band, includ- 
ing my own, being so simple, so straight-forward 
and clear. 

I have used this instrument before in other cases 
[the medium, Mrs. Soule] ; but not with such per- 
fect results ; and I believe it is the spirit of recep- 
tivity which you create. That is the next step to 
take if we would place this truth where it can do 
its work unmolested by carping critic, and suspi- 
cious sceptic. We must have the receiver, the in- 
terviewer, educated, and living in the spiritual 
key. We must make demands rather than let the 
ignorant and foolish make all the conditions. A 
fool can stand in the street and ask God all day 
long why he makes the sun shine when it dried up 
plants and streams, and often overcomes the phys- 



F. W. H. MYERS 79 

ical body of all-important man. But God makes 
no answer to the fool's queries, but keeps the sun 
shining in the heavens, and leaves the answer to 
the wise and those who have taken advantage of 
the wonderful power of sunshine. I might go on 
and multiply examples, but I know you will under- 
stand my meaning from this message so far. 

I have been intensely interested in your psychic 
experiences at home ; and they are quite like some 
of which I made note ; and there are duplicates of 
them in many families where the word is never 
given to the world. We hope to add to the power, 
on your return. The conditions there will be 
helped by this replenishing of the psychical reser- 
voir. You are as much' a part of those messages 
as is Mrs. Sjoegren. We draw largely from your 
brain capacity, using terms and phrases familiar 
to you, and perfectly unfamiliar, and without 
meaning, to her; and we use her for that strong 
magnetic current which must be tapped before 
we can express freely on the mortal plane. 

Many an old professor, or young one either, 
for that matter, sitting in his library, poring over 
old Sanscrit, or Greek, Hebrew, or Egyptian, is 



80 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

helped (aided and abetted, the lawyers would say) 
in his research, by spirits who are in his aura, and 
may express through his brain; but until some 
magnetic wire is touched (and by wire I mean 
current) the physical demonstration of a presence 
is quite impossible. You understand my meaning. 

We have felt that perhaps these experiences 
might serve for a valuable treatise on this matter. 
The communications before* were so short, pithy, 
and of moment, but not so full, that it was hard 
to get the matter into shape, as we hope to get it 
here. You have so much of poetry that comes 
from your life-work, the best kind of poetry too, 
so much love from your own dear ones, so much 
of a religious fervor from Dr. Brooks, and a 
grasping at the scientific aspect, at least, through 
my desire, that you are more than ordinarily well 
equipped for this service. 

It doesn't seem enough for me to say to you, I 
was with you yesterday, and saw you look at a 
certain book; I desired to have those finer, more 
subtle expressions that are the tell-tale of the 
spirit identity, and are not so easily discovered; 



* Meaning those received at my home. 



F. W. H. MYERS 81 

and I would have cumulative evidence, a bit here 
and there, that corroborates and makes sure. 

I am mightily interested in the cross-evidence. 
You are familiar with the reasoning; and after 
your return, I desire to try some cross-reference 
work with you there; and this light here (the me- 
dium). If I can come to you at your Thursday 
circle, and tell you something, and you write it 
down, and I can come here in Boston, the same 
evening, and say something to her, and she writes 
it down, and they correspond, haven't we got the 
cross-reference pretty well established? That is 
what I want to do. 

Your isolation, which you have sometimes 
grieved over, will stand you in good stead, because 
it will leave you perfectly free to work out this 
investigation for the next two years also, and add 
a most valuable bit of spirit-control history. It 
must be a man whose word and character stand 
for something ; and all these things we have taken 
into consideration. 

It is beautiful to be here with you, and you will 

notice that I have implied that you are not to 

i 



82 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

come to ns immediately, when I suggest that you 
have two years or more of work. 

Personally I am attracted to you for your fear- 
lessness, your uprightness, and your application 
to the truth that held my heart. 

I have been kept rather busy by friends who ex- 
pected me to give some demonstration; and it is 
a relief, sometimes, to slip into your little circle,* 
and rest with that perfect peace which can only 
come where there is harmony. 

A large circle is more or less wearisome, for we 
are obliged to contend with conflicting desires 
which are like so many noisy children clinging to 
a mother's skirts as she strives to do the daily 
duties. N 

People often do not think that desires have 
voices ; but they cry out like living things to those 
who are in the spirit. 

I think I will say no more this time. Your dear 
wife is so eager to speak, her happiness is so 
great, that I will come again, oh yes, many times 
before you go, and afterward, too, I hope. Just 



* At home. 



F. W. H. MYERS 83 

good afternoon, and so many grateful acknow- 
ledgments of your courtesy and kindness to me. 

My son would appreciate you, too ; you know of 
him, Paul. 

F. W. H. Myers. 

The Control: Now your lady comes and looks 
over into your face, and she says : 

I should have known if I hadn't seen you, this 
morning, but just caught the tone of your voice, 
when you were talking to our dear Miss Whiting, 
that something very urgent and unusual was on 
the tapis.* We were as eager as you to get there 
early and have the morning sunshine. And wasn't 
it beautiful! It was our little anniversary trip 
[the 56th anniversary of our marriage in Boston]. 
Everything moved so beautifully about it. If they 
had said the automobile would be ready at ten, you 
would have felt obliged to wait; but one o'clock 
made it out of the question. And so you were 



* A lady had offered her automobile to take us over to 
Cambridge, at half past nine, but afterwards said the chauffeur 
had to make some repairs, and the automobile would not be 
ready before one o'clock. I was insisting that it would not do 
at all to change the hour announced to the Band, and that we 
must go by the trolley car at the appointed time, and by the 
trolley car we went, much to my satisfaction, and also to that 
of the Band. 



84 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

spared the humiliation of riding in an automobile 
to an old colonial dwelling, whose walls had been 
blest because they hid away our beloved Longfel 
low. He was at every door and window of the 
Craigie House, and he said if you could have 
heard the sound of the feet on the floor, it would 
have been as a mighty army. He had invited some 
of his friends to be there, among them Charles 
Sumner, whose bust was there. It would have 
been better if Miss Whiting had gone in, for us to 
see.* Her spirit is so transparent and helpful, we 
could have seen with her power. We send our 
love to her all of us, and thank her for the beauti- 
ful care and entertainment she gives you. We 
were helped when she came into the grounds. She 
felt impressed to come. Miss Kate Field went 
after her. 



* I went in with Mme Roge, for whom we called in Cam- 
bridge on our way to the Craigie House. She had been asso- 
ciated v/ith Longfellow in compiling the series of 31 volumes 
of 'Poems of Places,' and was well acquainted with every- 
thing in the house. Miss Whiting strangely thought that three 
would be one too many to visit the house at an irregular hour 
for receiving visitors. She walked up and down the street on 
which the grounds front, and came in when we visited the 
beautiful grounds back of the house. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 85 

Upstairs, the rooms were so sacred; they were 
too sacred, you knew, the chambers particularly. 
Mr. Longfellow went up and looked it all over and 
was like a boy. He said to us it was something to 
be entertained by a celebrity who was almost a 
hundred and four.* I noticed the pens on the table, 
in his study. Did you notice, dear, the quills like 
yours! It's not like our library; it's very grand 
and unusual; but I love ours best. There was a 
wonderful chair there. Did you see it? one pre- 
sented to him. Was it not beautiful? And did you 
not feel our presence! And then when you came 
out on the steps, and caught the view of the river, 
you thought of us again and felt almost sorry to 
come away. 

Well, it has been a beautiful day, and Paulie 
was as happy as she could be. That was a new 
experience to her to come to New England and see 
Longfellow's home. She loved Longfellow, too. 

There were some early portraits of him, and 
you saw those. And Paulie says she thinks Mr. 
Longfellow wore boots like yours. The boys said 

* Longfellow was born February 27, 1807, and on the day 
of our visit he was one hundred and three years, six months, 
and seventeen days old. 



86 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

they didn't care so much about going in. They 
stayed outside with the Indians who were lined 
up in platoons, each side the walk. 

Mme Eoge was accompanied by her husband* 
in the spirit, and was so glad to see her have this 
treat. She is a literary woman,** and sometimes 
is starved for the society of literary people who 
have passed on before her and left her alone. Her 
husband was so gracious and cordial, and so in- 
terested in you, that I had a long talk with him 
about many things in France where he once lived. 
He was so familiar with many things that I am 
familiar with that it was a pleasure to meet him. 
Sometimes through the day^ when you are rest- 
ing, I run over to our home and see how things 
are getting along, and everything is all right. But 
at night, I lie on the bed beside you till your spirit 
is released by sleep, and then I take you with me 
until it is time for you to come back in the morn- 
ing. 

* M. Adolphe Roge, who died in 1896. 

** Mme. Roge published under her maiden name, Charlotte 
Fiske Bates; she was editor of 'The Cambridge Book of 
Poetry.' 1882, invented the 'Longfellow Birthday Book,' the 
pioneers of others of the kind; author of 'Risk,' and other 
Poems, 1879. Now aged 72. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 87 

[Did I leave the body? I asked.] Yes, you left 
the body in sleep. You seem as free in the spiritual 
ether as I, only you have no abiding place in the 
spirit realm, yet. You are like a visitor ; and the 
scenes of Earth and your labors call and beckon 
your spirit until you return. I always return with 
you and see that you get inside all right, and then 
I am free to perform my tasks of the day, for you 
wake up. 

Some people recall some of the experiences 
which they have in spirit land; but some are not 
sufficiently impressed to retain it in the brain cells. 
In your case it is so natural and the sphere of 
spirit is so nearly a normal sphere for you that 
you have no acute experience, but glide naturally 
and simply back and forth from one condition to 
the other. Some people who are rather psychic, 
but not very spiritual, get only a little way into 
the spirit realm and see many things that are hap- 
pening in the world, or about to happen, and are 
so vividly impressed with it that they retain it, 
the shock of the happening drives it home, to stay 
as a conscious knowledge. Then there are other 
people who are highly spiritualized who slip into 



88 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

the spirit realm during sleep but have no well- 
balanced companion to guide them safely and un- 
erringly to scenes of quiet and peace, and they 
have many experiences, sometimes pleasant, some- 
times unpleasant ; but they frequently recall them 
in a hazy indefinite sort of way ; and then there is 
another kind who have guides and loved ones who 
desire them to retain what they see or learn, either 
for experience or experiment, and they do so. 

You see, dear, there are many varieties of the 
genus homo. 

Dear, you are such an enthusiast that you don't 
know when you are tired. So I will just give you 
my dear dear love, and we will all come again to- 
morrow. 

Caeeie. 

A word at the end. We shall solve this sphinx- 
like riddle yet. 

F. W. H. Myeks. 

14 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control : Dr. Brooks puts his hand on your 
head. He asks me to tell you that all your friends 
are here, and that he is to give the first message. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 89 

PHILLIPS BEOOKS. 

If I might offer a prayer at this moment, it 
would be that the Father would shower his blessed 
influence over this company and make of this hour 
a memorable occasion, serving as an incentive to 
more perfect work, more complete devotion and 
more tender love to all mankind, and that to you 
might be borne the blessed influence of peace 
which comes when the life is filled with an under- 
standing of God throughout all the Universe. 

It is more than a joy to speak to you, personally, 
it is a privilege to be one of a Band of spirits who 
hold intelligent converse with a mortal. 

I never believed that God had left the world 
without a witness of his love ; but I was confident 
that through faith in the power of Jesus the 
Christ, we might come into higher relation with 
the spiritual life, and gain an adjustment and 
poise that would keep the soul safe and calm 
through all the tumultuous tossings of a tempest- 
uous sea. 

I am assured through my own experience over 



90 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

here that it is a growth for spirits to continue their 
relationship with their loved ones on Earth.* 

I cannot realize why I took it so much as a mat- 
ter of course that death was a barrier between 
communicative friends.** It is really a gate, and 
makes all life one. And I know that mothers, 
whose babies crying in the night for the soothing 
touch of her hand that is dead, find infinite com- 
fort for their own souls in understanding the law 
which makes impossible for them to bring spirit- 
ual influences that calm and strengthen those ba- 
bies ; and just as sure, and in much the same way, 
that all people are sustained and helped by ex- 
pressed affection, the children of men are helped 
and sustained by the expressed affection of those 
over here. 

It is good to talk with a man who has had this 
experience, and who can certify to the sustaining 
power of such intercourse. I am of the opinion 
that it is the stairway which leads to the upper 

* It is a notion with some who are opposed to Spiritualism, 
that spirits are kept back in their progress by being attracted 
to seances. It is the testimony of the spirits themselves that 
they are helped in their progress, by ministering to those they 
have left behind in Earth life. 

** Meaning when he was in the body. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 91 

kingdom. I wish I had known more about it as 
a religion. It was never presented to me in that 
light ; and what little I knew of it, in a general way 
I felt was a case for the scientific world. But I 
see now its importance in the religious world. I 
do not mean as a dressed-up philosophy, with tags 
of creed and symbols of dogmas, but that religion 
which makes men turn from the low and ignoble 
to all that is beautiful, and majestic, and grand. 
The communication proper from father to son, of 
wife or mother, is all important to me, to-day ; and 
I speak for its wonderful effectiveness toward 
righteousness. The wonderful pictures of a moth- 
er's devotion and undying faith which all good 
men are fond of repeating, in story or color, 
should find voice in the message of the mother to 
her darlings here. And you and I know there is 
no power anywhere which makes for righteous- 
ness like love. 

I want to tell you, also, that my personal experi- 
ences which I had before I left the body, and which 
I shared with very few people, were of such a na- 
ture, so personal and intimate, that I did not con- 
sider them as a part of the spiritualistic philoso- 



92 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

phy. I thought of them as dream and vision which 
come to the soul in its ecstatic state ; but I find that 
in the most ordinary mortals, if, indeed there are 
any ordinary ones, and in the most commonplace 
walks of life, if any walk of life is commonplace, 
the voices of loved friends, and dear guides, and 
tender relatives, are often heard and heeded. So 
not to the spiritual adept alone does God send his 
messenger ; but to every soul that walks the earth, 
the angel sometimes comes, and whether his mes- 
sage be received or not, the life is better for the 
invisible presence and the whispered consolation. 

I am tempted to talk too long on this theme, for 
it is so vital and peremptory. But I long to tell 
you of my present joy in your visit to my Boston, 
my diocese, my native and loved city, and to this 
hotel* which was well-known by me, as you must 
know. I went to Church with you, and was glad 
to find you sitting there. 

I preach now occasionally, sometimes through 
some one who is striving to give a message to the 
world, and sometimes to a company of people over 
here ; for vou must know that themes like those I 



* The Brunswick. The stances were in my room there. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 93 

would naturally choose to speak upon, are always 
of interest to people either in the body, or out of 
the body. I say this with no exaltation of spirit, 
but rather to have you understand why I am asked 
to speak. We know so little about God over here 
compared to what the most of us expected to know. 
Knowledge only comes after diligent search; and 
knowledge of God (he being the unknowable) must 
be sought with ardor and faithfulness over here, 
as in your world.* Some men find an expression 
of God in a violet growing by the brookside; and 
some men see him not even in the thunder or the 
lightning, or the mighty mountains, or the ever- 
surging sea. It is in the soul that the first know- 
ledge of God finds expression; and then outward, 
outward, ever outward it finds its way, and 
touches every floweret tracing its ways to the 
source of all being. 

Some souls are born spiritually blind, just as 
some bodies are born with blind eyes; and it re- 
mains for us who have caught the Shadow of his 
garment on the walls of the universe, to take the 

* This is a very interesting communication. I have known 
people who hoped (literally speaking) to see God when they 
passed to the spirit world. He is not a person. 



94 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

hand of these and lead them to the light, to the 
Master, who shall touch their eyes and make them 
see. 

You and I were primarily different in some of 
our expressions. The missionary zeal filled me to 
overflowing, while you had little or none of that. 
Your thirst for knowledge and your ready accept- 
ance of it, gave you an assurance and steadiness 
that was quite sufficient. Perhaps we were both 
bound a little by the institutions which we repre- 
sented ; and while we had individual freedom, the 
narrowness of their conceptions reacted on our 
lives, and affected us in different ways. To-day, 
my zeal is just as fervent, and I would give out 
everything, all and more, hoping that some seed 
might find soil receptive. Your wisdom and con- 
sciousness of how much would go to waste, would 
make you less prodigal in the sowing of seed. But 
I am going to make a sort of farmer of you, after 
all; for some of the seeds I put in your keeping, 
you will be bound to sow. 

Boston has not changed materially since I went 
away, and I perhaps notice it less than others be- 
cause I am so constantly a visitor. I have many 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 95 

calls by my friends over here to go with them to 
some old familiar scenes, or to visit some dear one 
close to them. The world here* is so much a world 
of sense that I find it had to realize that I am dead. 
That sounds strange ; perhaps I should modify it, 
and say, I find it strange to find myself considered 
dead, except in influence. We have institutions 
and streets and all the things that make up living, 
urban living, just the same as suburban living. 
Most people, if they think of the spirit realm at 
all, except as a place of pearly gates and golden 
streets, and undimmed glory, like to dream of it as 
some beautiful, quiet, retired spot, where all the 
active interests of glowing life cease; as if the 
spirit world might be a vast pasture land, where 
the shepherd leads his flocks, to dwell in beauty 
and quiet repose. But this is false, my friend, as 
false as is the doctrine of brimstone and eternal 
torment. 

The activities of the spiritual life are wonder- 
ful beyond expression. It is no dreaming exis- 
tence, but vivid and real and progressive ; and men 



The spirit world. 



96 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

gather together and plan and work for the uplift- 
ing of those in the mortal world, and of the unfor- 
tunates who are hastened into this world by undue 
exposure, privation, starvation, and all the dread- 
ful array of evils which beset the ignorant and 
blind seekers after gold or place. And to those 
higher activities, research and study, discovery, 
and application of laws of nature, for the better- 
ment of the world, mutual cooperation in artistic 
expression, poetry, art, music, all those divine arts 
are ours ; and daily I thank God it is so. 

You stand in the vestibule of life; and those 
who are near enough to catch glimpses of its 
beauty, whisperings of its harmony, inspirations 
of its prayers, are your divine leaders, your poets, 
great artists of every kind, but not necessarily 
your ministers, your clergymen; for in many in- 
stances they are but showmen standing at the tent 
door, howling about the wares which the Lord 
keeps inside. 

So much more I would say to you, dear friend, 
but this must suffice for now. 

Will you tell my friend, Miss Lilian Whiting, 
how much she has helped me by her perfect faith 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 97 

in my power to communicate ; and tell her I know 
that she believes I was a medium when here, and I 
believe so, too. For you, I only say again, I thank 
you, and will come as often as I may. 
Faithfully yours, 

Phillips Bkooks. 

15 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 
ROBERT BROWNING. 

May I, please, send a few words to you. This is 
our day;* if we were in New York, we should 
be preparing for our seance. So I had a little 
fancy to come and recall it to you, and to tell you 
that we are all going over to the seance room this 
evening just as if you were there, and stay a few 
moments to keep the connection bright and in 
order. We shall not be lonesome, because we are 
so happy here, and we know that your work will 
receive a new impetus from this change. 

I wonder whether I spoke to you of the won- 
drous joy that filled my soul when I found that all 
my dreams of heaven were realized, and I looked 

* Thursday, the day when the Band meet regularly at my 
home, at 3 P. M. 

8 



98 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

into the eyes of my darling and felt her hands in 
mine. 

For a time I did not feel as if I cared whether 
I could return to the friends in the Earth sphere 
or not ; but I found her so eager to unite with me 
in a work through return that we began at once a 
sort of mission to the souls still bound and blind- 
ed by physical bands. 

You remember the little couplet in "Aurora 
Leigh', 

'Love, let us love so well, that our work shall be 
sweeter for our love."* 

That was the spirit in which Elizabeth and I be- 
gan our mission. And we are never separated in 
the work. Wherever one is> there is the other; 
and so when I speak to you, you may know that I 
am under the influence of her shining smile; and 
whenever she touches the aura of her loved 
Lilian, **there am I, lingering in the shadow of 
her heavenly presence. 

* He did not give the lines just as they stand in 'Aurora 
Leigh,' vv. 924 — 926 of Book IX: "Beloved, let us love so well, 
our work shall still be better for our love, and still our love 
be sweeter for our work." 

** Miss Lilian Whiting, who was engaged at the time, in 
writing their combined lives. 



ROBERT BROWNING 99 

We made no mistake in the choosing ; or, rather, 
we did not choose, we knew, and we loved, and our 
souls melted into the unit. 

So I believe you and your loved ones will find 
your lives running into the same completeness. 

Oh, I am so glad for every song we ever sung, 
and for every word we ever spoke, that helped 
the world to know more of love and God ! 

It is beautiful to have an opportunity to ex- 
press ; and I thank you for all your gracious kind- 
ness in opening so wide the door to the realm 
where you dwell. 

We were all much interested in the message 
from Dr. Brooks. He was so big and wonderful 
as a speaker, so simple and childlike as a man, and 
so filled with the fervor of love to God that we 
wondered what he would say to you, knowing, as 
he did, that clergymen are not held in the highest 
regard by you, especially clergymen who are al- 
lowed no originality, and are expected to mum- 
ble prayers which either never had any meaning, 
or lost it all in the light of revealed truth. But he 
found a way to express his love to you, his inter- 



100 SPIRIT MESSAGES 



est in all that was good, and his disgnst with 
things untrue. 

He was with you this morning when you stop- 
ped in front of his house;* he was away; but your 
thought reached him, as a vibratory message, and 
he hastened to your side, and laughed heartily as 
he said, ' Oh, what hero worshipers they are after 
all!' Then he came home with you, and into the 
room for a few moments, and then went away. 

He says that you have never spoken of his 
statue;** perhaps you do not like it; but he sees 
you have his picture in your room here. 

I am not sure that I ought to stay any longer, 
this time; we are planning to have an old friend 
speak tomorrow, and he has been in the room this 
afternoon watching the method of work, and has 
absorbed some of the vitality. We refer to Mr. 
Sumner. Mr. Sumner represents a group of peo- 
ple who are working together in the affairs of the 
nation, Lincoln, whom you must have known, and 

* I had taken a walk in the Park with Miss Lilian Whiting, 
and on our way back she took me to the house in which Dr. 
Brooks lived several years. We stood at the steps for some 
time, talking about him. 

** A colossal statue, outside of his church in Boston, repre- 
senting him as preaching. 



ROBERT BROWNING 101 

Webster, and Seward. There are others in the 
group, but those faces are familiar, and I mention 
them now. 

Lincoln is especially interested in this form of 
communication, although you and he as identities 
are far apart in your work; and yet the result of 
your work would bring you close together. Good 
bye, my friend, this time. 

Robert Browning. 

CAROLINE EOLLIN CORSON. 

. . . I have never spoken to you of our thea- 
tres over here. You know I love the plays and 
great actors, and I loved Shakespeare. You re- 
member that. Over here I am quite free to go and 
see the best acting. 

We often saw good things when we traveled; 
but we were so isolated, at home, that we saw lit- 
tle of acting there. 

I must tell you, some day, of the wonderful the- 
atres, over here, and how grand it is to see the 
drama acted' so perfectly and supremely for the 
mere love of expression.. 



102 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

dear Miss Whiting, and my gratitude to her as 
well. Good night. Careie. 

16 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control: Your Pauline is to give the first 
message, this afternoon ; and she says : 

Oh, papa, we were all so happy to see the beauti- 
ful country, and to have the experience of a pleas- 
ure drive in an automobile. * 

You have never asked me how we travel from 
place to place in the spirit world ; and so I am go- 
ing to tell you that there are as many modes of 
travel as you have on Earth. But no one is ab- 
solutely dependent on any conveyance to get to 
any specified place. 

There are currents like magnetic rivers that are 
everywhere through the ether ; and we can get into 
those currents by a simple adjustment of the body, 
and are carried along to where they lead. 

The magnetic currents between loved ones are 
much stronger, and the passage of flight is swifter. 



* I went with Miss Lilian Whiting and Mrs. Soule, the 
medium, in an automobile twenty miles, or more, outside of 
the city. That distance, and the return, made over forty miles, 
all in what is called the suburbs of Boston. 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 103 

So the more strongly you love us, the deeper the 
current, and the more swiftly we can come to you. 
Many people lose their interest in their dead 
friends, and the river dries up that should con- 
nect them ; and so there is seldom the definite com- 
munication. But you never lose your interest in 
your friends, and the influences surrounding them, 
and so the way is always open. We have to thank 
you for that, because it is a thing that spirits can- 
not do by themselves. It is a cooperative work. 

I loved the flowers, papa, this morning, and the 
houses that looked like homes where happy peo- 
ple lived. I was glad you had company with you, 
for it added to the power and made it possible to 
feel more keenly the air, and see the beauty, and 
hear the sounds of your world. 

There are many scientific people who would be 
glad to have the experiences which you have with 
us; but they are cut off by their doubts, or their 
superstitions, for they have superstitions of their 
own. They certainly must be superstitious, for 
there is no foundation for their feelings against 
communications. 

I am not very much interested in science. I 



104 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

don't have to pull a butterfly to pieces in order to 
enjoy it. I like to see it as part of the picture 
of summer. But some scientists would want to 
pull every butterfly apart, and measure his wings, 
and see how his eyes are made. 

But all this has nothing to do with my love for 
you, which I feel growing stronger every day. 

It is so lovely to find some of my things at home 
where I had them. There are only a few, but 
enough to make me feel I am a part of the old 
home. I was quite sad to go away from you, for 
I knew you needed me; but there was so much 
done to make me happy in the new life, and I was 
so soon able to find my connection with you that 
I grew accustomed to the separation, physically, 
and to the union, spiritually. You know, papa, I 
think it is much better to be united spiritually and 
separated physically, than to be united physically 
and separated spiritually. There is a union be- 
tween us now whieh can never be shaken or mis- 
understood, and we grow together more and more. 

I am not much more of a church-goer than you 
are; but I do love the wonderful expression of 
God in the world, and am quite content to wait un- 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 105 

til you come, before I begin to study the problems 
of the spiritual forces, the Great First Cause 
which men have named God. 

I am not going to talk any more, to-day; but 
sometimes you may think that my brown hair is 
close beside your white hair, and that means that 
my arms are around you and my face is close to 
yours. 

Good bye, now, papa. 

Pauline. 

The Control: Your wife wants to say a lit- 
tle word: 

. . . I like this dear city for its beauty and 
its associations with the friends in the Band, who 
lived here. Mr. Sumner, who is to speak to you, 
now, says that Boston has changed much since he 
was here, but it has kept its general lines and ten- 
dencies better than most cities because it has the 
descendents of the early settlers still in possession 
of the land and the power. Usurpation of the 
home titles has gone on less here than in New 
York, or any other of the large cities. Washing- 
ton never having any home blood in its veins but 
being supplied with the best blood of all other 



1 06 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

cities, became the great cosmopolitan centre of 
the nation. 

These are Mr. Sumner's words, dear; but I 
leave him to give you the rest of his message. 
Good bye for now. Joseph and Emil join with me 
in tender greetings. Caekie. 

CHARLES SUMNER, 

It has pleased me to come here to-day with our 
mutual friend, Mr. Longfellow, that I might tell 
you that although my voice has been silent these 
many years, my spirit has been active and still is 
active in the problems which confront the states- 
men to-day. Patriotism calls to her sons, this hour, 
.as she never did before. 

The political situation is so uncertain, and un- 
safe, that sometimes we fear the progress of hu- 
manity will be checked because of demands upon 
it which it cannot meet. But I have not come here 
to make a political speech. 

I was weary and broken when I left the arena ; 
and all the finer and more beautiful expressions in 
literature and art called to me to surrender my 
active work in the warfare for the States ; and so 



CHARLES SUMNER 107 

I rested and enjoyed the study and quiet of a 
scholarly life, instead of the stirring scenes of 
statecraft. But a born patriot could not sit down 
and let his country go to the dogs; and I soon 
found myself during the reconstructive period 
growing very much interested in the affairs of 
the nation. 

To speak very plainly to you, dear friend, there 
is so much that seems like child's play in your 
world when you look at it from the standpoint of 
the spirit, that it becomes easy to let the thing go 
on, and devote one's self to those more enduring 
and needful unfoldments of the spirit. I don't 
want you to get an erroneous conclusion concern- 
ing my state of mind or effort. 

When a boy is in college, he may fight the bat- 
tles for the other boys, win the prizes, and keep 
his college colors afloat, sing himself hoarse on the 
college campus, that the college songs may be 
heard by all who will listen, and believe in his 
heart that no other university is like unto his own. 
But when he gets into the great world, there are 
more important and vital issues to him than 
whether his college team wins the pennant or gets 



108 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

the best touch down in the football game ; and that 
is what it is to us. Many of our finest sophistries 
of the greatness of our country are lost in our 
knowledge of the kingdom of souls. 

Do you not see that a great statesman may be- 
come a great lover of humanity in the largest 
sense, and be devoted to it only for its spiritual 
possibilities ? Whether it be German, or French, or 
English, to some of us over here matters little. 

Charles Sumner. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Dear Corson, I thought you would be pleased to 
have my friend Sumner speak a word to you. 

I am very glad you did not feel impelled to stay 
longer in that great ark of a building, the Chris- 
tian Science Church, so strange a building it is, 
so massive and so wonderful, and we are all shut 
away from it by the decree of the mother herself, 
mother Eddy. 

I laughed, and so did we all, when we thought 

. perfectly we were being entertained, how 

each one of you three, Miss Whiting, the medium, 

und yourself, were being followed by bands of 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 109 

your own through this great building whose found- 
er says there is no communication with the dead. 
How fact does contradict fancy, and how truth 
does slay a lie ! We were living witnesses, or rath- 
er, you three were, to the error and untruth of her 
printed statements. 

This is only a little word in closing, that you 
may know we were all there.* 

Mrs. Browning kept exclaiming, 'how awful' ! 
the place seemed so barren and so lost in itself, 
without spiritual impulse or feeling ; and she said, 
also, that the great dome looked as if it might have 
been put there that the prayers could be sent right 
back as soon as they reached the top. 

I will say good night to you now, friend, and 
will come tomorrow. 

Longfellow. 

The Control: Mr. Longfellow says that Mr. 
Sumner felt so much more intimately acquainted 
with you because of the constant use of your name 
in that intimate fashion by your many friends 



* We stopped to see the church on our way back in the 
automobile ride alluded to by my daughter in her last mes- 
sage. We knew that the Band were all with us when we 
were in the church. 



] 1 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

over here, that he may have seemed a little more 
familiar than you expected him to be. But he has 
nothing to retract. If he didn 't know yon well be- 
fore, he hopes he does now ; and he shall keep com- 
ing until he warrants through association personal 
that degree of intimacy which he assumed. 

17 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 
CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

It is so beautiful for us to come here to this little 
vesper service; and when we have finished the 
duties of our day, to join you here in this hour of 
blessed communion and sweet interchange of 
thought. Sometimes, dear, I feel like recalling 
some of the incidents of our past, and yet when 
I get here, my heart is so full of the reality of the 
life that now is that I begin to talk and express 
myself on themes of present interest, and forget 
the past. I know you do not need the constant test 
of my fidelity, and the things that I would recall 
are not for that purpose, but to give evidence of 
my recollection of some of the very beautiful 
things in our life together. 

You were always interested in what I wore, and 
how I looked ; and sometimes when I put on a new 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 111 

garment here, I think of yon, and wonder how yon 
wonld like it. 

We both have snch a love of comfortable ap- 
parel that we might sacrifice a style to appear per- 
fectly at ease in a garment that snited ns. Yon 
know clothes bespeak the mind; and when I tell 
you that all my clothes are fitted for the work I 
do, and are graceful and well made, and of fine 
material, you will understand that I have not 
changed in my manner of dressing. 

This is only incidental. But color affects me as 
much to-day as it used to when I was in the phy- 
sical body. The subdued tones suit me best. I 
show no French tendency to royal purple, or bril- 
liant pink, or flaming scarlet, or any of those 
shades. It is the mind and not the nationality that 
determines these things. 

I am studying and am writing, myself, and am 
pleased to tell you of this, for you will know that 
some of the desires I used to have, have found 
expression over here. 

Pauline and I go to grand concerts, for I am 
thrilled with music, as I always was. I have been 
where violins were played so divinely that it seem- 



1 1 2 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

ed a strain from heavenly heights lingering a mo- 
ment about us ; and the enthusiasm of a great 
musician quite carries me away. 

You remember Ole Bull. I have heard him over 
here, and it seems as if his soul were singing 
through the strings. 

His wife could not appreciate any better than 
some ordinary people, the finest things he did, 
but she was proud of him, and being a woman of 
rare discernment and superior culture, she made 
a fitting mate for him; more ambitious than he 
for social distinction, but he adored her, and still 
does. You know her,* dear, and you know what 
I mean by what I have said. s She belongs to the 
colony of the social elect, and is a connoisseur of 
many fine things. 

Enough of that. It is a sort of an introduction, 
or a bit of gossip which makes me seem more a 
part of your life, to-day. 

I feel like telling you how beautiful you made 
my life. You were so pleased and proud over 



* I was her guest, several years ago, when I was invited 
to give a Browning reading before the Boston Browning So- 
ciety. She was then occupying James Russell Lowell's house 
in Cambridge; he was then minister to England. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 113 

every thing I did, and always gave me the encour- 
aging word, and never for a moment demanded 
of me anything which would detract from my own 
search and effort after knowledge. 

Do you remember how proud and happy we 
were when you first went to Cornell University, 
and when you were first made a professor there I 
We had had some plans about going in another 
direction, and then we went there, and our life be- 
gan in earnest; and then when we got the house, 
and when we furnished it, and made the changes 
and additions, all those things are just as plain 
in my memory as when they happened. And, per 
haps, my life here, with its plans for your com- 
ing, and my work to have every thing right for 
you, bring back those days more definitely to me. 

Oh, how I love my children ! and I want Eugene 
always to feel that he is one with the rest in my 
heart and thought, to-day. I am so glad that we 
have a son in the world, to work and carry inspira 
tion and help to those who need it sorely. 

I hope he '11 be able to get away and visit you, by 
and bye. It would do you both good. My love I 
send him, and tell him I appreciate and under - 

i 



1 1 4 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

stand his ardent nature; and I know how some- 
times it's like taking a dip in an icy stream to 
drop from his high thought of ideal life into the 
turmoil and stress of material conditions. What- 
ever I can do for him, or for his wife, or girls, 
from this side of life, I do with my whole heart. 

The Control : She stops right short there 
and turns around and beckons Miss Bennett to 
come this way. She knew Miss Bennett, didn't 
<\\o ! and Miss Bennett begins to speak immediate- 
ly. She speaks quickly, like a woman who has a 
very full mind, but an orderly one, and her expres- 
sions come walking out like so many girls walking 
out from a school-room, and she says that's a very 
apt illustration. 

Dear Professor, I cannot tell you the joy it 
gives me to come here to-day. 

I think I never heard you read in your course at 
my school that F did not say when it was over, 
"it seems to grow better and better every year, and 
your power of interpretation is marvelous," I 
reach for you many, many times, in my work over 
here; for you know T am still teaching, as that 



FRANCES BENNETT 115 

seems the most perfect mode of expression I have 
just now. 

I find myself thinking I will have the Profesor 
come over, just as I used to, when you were in 
New York state, and I in Pennsylvania ; and then 
I realize that I must wait a little before I can do 
that. I am perfectly conscious of you as a mortal, 
because I am with your Band, and yet I think of 
you so naturally as one of us that I fall into that 
way of half -expecting you at some particular func- 
tion or time. 

You know I suffered so much before I came 
here, and there was such a long time that I could 
do no work. There was quite a while here that I 
lived a quiet and retired life until I could get ad- 
justed, but that is all over, I am out of the hospital 
and fairly launched in a work I love. Your wife 
and I are very happy in our companionship, and 
we frequently make little trips to places we have 
both known ;* and then try and remember what we 
have seen, because the recollections of what we 
have seen do not always come readily to us. It is 
similar to your dream life when you sleep. 

* That is, when they were in the body. 



1 1 6 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

I have been intensely interested in the develop- 
ment of your housekeeper, Tilly ; both she and her 
daughter possess the psychic power, but Tilly is 
the stronger of the two. She is the most faithful 
servant, and is really above the rank of ordinary 
servants. And we always feel so safe to know you 
have some one who can take care of you, if you 
should be ill. I am glad it turned out so well as 
it did.* I understood that you could not leave the 
home, it was too full of associations, and was ad- 
justed and adapted to your needs. To tear you 
away from the scenes of your active life, trans- 
plant you in some other soil, would have been fatal 
to your happiness. So this is best. 

I remember the last time I was at your home, a 
little while before I was disabled, and that every- 
thing was so beautiful ; it seemed to me it was one 
of the loveliest spots in the world. . . This is 
just about the decade when there is a general 
changing about [in Cornell University] because 
of age and a general desire to get on the retiring 



* It was due to Miss Bennett that I secured my Swedish 
housekeeper, who was employed at the time in the sanitarium 
where Miss Bennett was a patient. 



FRANCES BENNETT 117 

list. But you and I, dear Professor, did not care 
so much about being retired from our labors. 

There are so many more things I wanted to talk 
about, but these came first. 

I didn't always understand the reality of your 
consciousness of the spirit life ; but it gives me joy 
to testify to it now. Tilly is rather lonely without 
you, but it will give her an opportunity to store 
up some energy for our Thursday seances. She 
doesn't go into the seance room; at least, I have 
not seen her, and it is closed and kept securely 
safe from all intrusion. 

Do you remember the raps we once made in 
your wife's writing desk? (Yes,) and how pleased 
you were? And the door that goes into the other 
room that is always locked, do you remember its 
being unlocked one night? And the music-box be- 
ing wound once? What a dear little room it is! 
It would seem as if some of us would have to stand 
in the hall. But you must remember that it ex- 
tends upward to the very gate of the other life. . 
. . . I seem to be losing power, Professor, so 
I'll go, but come again. I am afraid I haven't 
made as good a communicator as some of the 



1 1 8 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

others, but my interest is just as strong as theirs. 
Good bye for this hour. Miss Bennett. 

The Control: They will close with a word 
from Pauline and the boys. They come right in, 
the three of them, with smiles and fun on their 
faces and stand around you with their hands 
clasped together, and Pauline says 'we are making 
a ring of love around you, papa, and you'll feel 
the vibrations of it until we come again. ' Joseph 
says that he loves the work that Eugene does. He 
says, next to teaching the people how to take care 
of their bodies, to help them to take care of them 
when they are out of repair, is the most important 
thing in the world. 

He thinks that all preaching should resolve it- 
self into teaching; and no preacher who is not 
a good teacher, is worthy the name. He often goes 
to Eugene, and is pleased with him when he puts 
up an argument to some of his associates about 
the demonstrability of the future life, then leaves 
it there for them to think over. Emil says that 
he likes best to go to Eugene when they are all so 
puzzled and don't know what to do, and he can 
help Eugene to see. This is Saturday night, says 



EMIL CORSON u 9 

Emil, and we are all gathered here with you to 
make you feel that it is the real home-night when 
we can sit together and just be happy to be in each 
other's presence. 

Good night, father ; they say, it is time for us to 
let the seance close. Call the roll and they will all 
say their sweet good night to you. 

18 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

I give you greeting, dear friend in the earthly 
life, and am glad to come with an expression from 
this sphere of even larger usefulness than that 
which I left behind. I might go on for many days 
and repeat over and over the joy it gives me to 
come to you; and yet I could not give you any 
understanding of my personal work and life over 
here by such statements. And as that is what I 
desire to do, I will begin at once, as if you and I 
had a perfect understanding of the spiritual bond 
between us, and need to spend no energy speaking 
of our personal interest in each other. I know your 
work and life, your love of the ethical and ultra 
spiritual expression in men and women; and so I 



1 20 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

know you will be glad for me to tell you that the 
preacher's efforts are not in vain, if he be able to 
awaken in souls a love for God, the infinite one — 
mark that passage — the Infinite One; for men, 
from the beginning, have clumsily fashioned a 
finite God, and placed him in the heavens as a be- 
ing above them only in capacity. Even then men 
might have been better for the finite God which 
they worshipped, had they worshipped him fully 
and completely. 

There is no half-hearted religion, and no divid- 
ed sanctified life. Wholly and faithfully must 
man serve those higher instincts which in turn 
become passions and yearnings after the ideal 
life. It is as important to be an honest broker as 
an upright preacher; and the stocks and bonds of 
the street must be dealt with as seriously and 
earnestly as the equities of the heavenly life. I 
would not take men away from their vocations to 
get their religious life, but would take the re- 
ligious life to them wherever their vocations might 
lead them. 

I am always surprised at the honors which come 
to me ; and in the past, when I knew my only vir- 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 121 

tue was a whole-soul devotion to my calling, and 
undivided affection for God and his children. I 
was sometimes alarmed at the excess of praise 
and the seeming adoration for my personality. I 
only wanted to be a servant of the living God. 
And I assure you I appreciated every kind word 
that was spoken to me, or about me ; but I always 
felt that it was a power flowing through me which 
they loved, and I am perfectly sure of it now. 
When I came over here to the spirit life, I felt that 
I must continue my ministry, and I was not quite 
satisfied to have it only a work among spirits. 
I wanted to do something for the world I had left, 
and I sought information about the possibilities of 
such service, in much the same manner as 
I would have sought like information had 
I suddenly been transported to Hawaii with 
no vessel returning. I found that many of my 
preconceived ideas, those I imbibed from educa- 
tion and association, had to be set aside. I think 
I spoke to you of this the other day; but really, 
dear friend, when a man earnestly seeks the light, 
he is not turning his face backward, very often; 



122 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

and I was satisfied to let many things drift until I 
could better understand them. 

The naked soul coming into this life, clothed 
only with the spiritual garments, woven of good 
deeds and upright aspirations, finds itself in a 
haven of waiting, and is content to let time give 
an answer to its questionings. 

The most horrible sight is the soul truly naked 
because of its lost covering, and its unhappy lack 
of faculty to create anything with which to cover 
itself. Fine garments there are in spirit land, and 
jewels and precious things, but these are not 
bought with blood-stained money, or bartered for 
by the world's honor. And if we can make men 
understand that the only wealth that survives 
death is the wealth of the lordly spirit, we may 
rest confident that the Kingdom of God will come 
down to Earth. One can only have the Kingdom 
of God by understanding what it is. The crime 
of life is in wrong decision and selection. 

I am not sure that I am making perfectly plain 
to you, what I want to say; it is not the religious 
life (religion is a function) but the spiritual life; 
for spirituality is the attribute of the soul. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 123 

If I might lift my voice till its tones were heard 
across the seas, and over continents, I would cry 
out, make haste, make haste, and decide which 
shall be your glory, the life of to-day, with the 
power of its wealth, its unlimited capacity to do 
all the errands of the body's bidding, to search the 
farthest corner of the globe and bring back fair 
raiment, and choicest viands, to pierce the ether 
after new sensations of delight, in aerial craft, to 
dive beneath the coral depths and bring the ocean's 
bottom to your view, to put sceptre in your hand 
and give you royal dominion over the Kingdom of 
the Earth, and toss you, at last, a dead and wasted 
thing on the shores of eternity, all your spiritual 
powers vitiated and destroyed, and all capacity 
for yearning after truth and righteousness para- 
lyzed, or to stand serene in the midst of tempta- 
tion, calm in the midst of strife, master over the 
carnal appetites and desires, towering with giant 
force above the littlenesses of mere material ex- 
istence, supreme in spiritual aspiration over intel - 
lectual bigotry, and closing the eyes in sweet con- 
tent on the physical world to open them in sweet 



124 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

wonder at the glory of the spiritual wealth that 
waits the coming. 

I grow so eager to tell the world what I have 
seen ; I long to tell them of my ministry here, how 
men whose lives have been protected by deceit and 
dual expressions, find themselves suddenly face 
to face with the real situation, and beg me to tell 
the story to the world, that some may be saved 
from the degradation and humiliation which come 
from ignorant or wilful deception. 

The idols of bronze and ivory are not the only 
idols in the world, and Buddha and Confucius 
are not the only Christs whose, votaries serve them 
with incense and gems. Christ, too, Jesus of 
Nazareth, sits enthroned in place of state, by men 
whose only offering to him is gold and silver, and 
equipage and lordly palace. And many minis- 
ters reckon their ministry successful only when 
carriages stand waiting at their church doors, and 
the rustle of silk garments disturbs the harmony 
of the vesper hymn. 

Oh, give me, my Father, the heart that finds its 
joy in humble service, where the sobs of the sin- 
sick and the weary make music in my ears, where 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 125 

the sighings after the understanding of the truth 
spur my soul to more active endeavor, and when, 
in such lowly place, I feel the touch of invisible fin- 
gers on my brow, I know my work has reached to 
greatest height. 

If such could be the prayer in every church, to- 
day, my ministry would cease; for it is among 
those who did not find the door which leads to the 
life of peace in the spirit. 

By this, you will know, my friend, something of 
my work and effort over here. I am deeply inter- 
ested in the spirit communion as a philosophy, be- 
cause I am sure that all religions fail in trying to 
give comfort to the bereaved heart. And if a 
clergyman could stand over the bier of a little 
child, and say to its weeping parents, whose hearts 
are often surcharged with bitterness toward God 
for the heavy cross Death lays upon them, this 
is what the minister should say: ' Death is an 
open door through which your darling has passed 
into a life as real and definite as yours is; and 
from that life, its consciousness of you will be con- 
tinued, its love kept fresh, and living, and the 
higher your life ascends the spiritual Alps, the 



126 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

nearer and more perfect the method of communi- 
cation is for you.' If a minister might say this 
truthfully, instead of repeating all those most 
blessed passages of Scripture, but so inadequate 
to stem the tide of sorrow and natural rebellion, 
how easy it would be for even the suffering 
mothers and fathers to see God's love even in the 
experience of death ! 

Few people ever curse the Ocean because it rolls 
between the continents, but they use the means of 
communication, and find themselves in close touch 
with those of another shore. So we must teach 
men not to curse Death, or ignore it, but see it 
only as a means of opening up the continent of 
spiritual life. And the price one pays is not the 
coin of the earthly realm to communicate with the 
spiritual continent, but a subjugation of physical 
desires, and a growing into the fulness and per- 
fectness of the spiritual life, where the language 
or, at least, the codes and signals of spiritual navi- 
gation may be understood from either side. 

I fear I have talked too long; the theme is so 
wonderful and interesting. But now I must leave 
you for this hour with this word which you may 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 127 

credit yourself as being worthy of. You are at- 
tuned to the higher spiritual songs ; and whenever 
the vibrant tones of your soul sound across the 
Ether waves of the silent spaces 'neath the stars, 
some soul buoyant and free and singing like your 
own, comes gladly to your side to find that joy of 
soul companionship which is vouchsafed to so few. 

I sometimes think the greatest souls walk most 
alone. Children play in groups ; the common pur- 
pose of hop, skip, and jump the ropes, is sufficient 
to hold them together. All my messages seem so 
ragged and incomplete when I get away ; but I am 
sure of your understanding of my desires, and I 
thank you for the atmosphere of confidence and 
trust which your spirit creates. 

Does it not seem strange for me to be speaking 
this sort of a sermon to the world through you, al- 
most under the shadow of my old church, nearly 
eighteen years after my body has been put away!* 

Phillips Bkooks. 

* He passed to the spirit world Jan. 23, 1893 

CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

I wonder, Hiram dear, whether ours was not as 
ideal a life as the Brownings'. She was such a 



128 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

bird, so fragile, such sweet songs she sang, that 
the nest she left never seemed like the home nest 
again to Mr. Browning.* 

You have written long enough, this time. With 
a heart full of love from your Carrie, we all say 
good nights. 

19 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control: It's such a pleasure to come to 
one who is so responsive to our effort. You know 
how it is when you are talking to a little company 
of people, it is not easy to speak the best thoughts 
unless there be a responsiveness in the hearts of 
those whom you address. Intellect may speak to 
intellect, but the sweetest and the best exchange 
of thought is between understanding hearts and 
sympathetic souls. That is only my little word. 

Your Paulie comes first to you, to-day, and 
says: 

Papa, darling, the sweetest sound we hear in 
this life of ours is your voice when you call our 
names. It's like a silver bell that rings in our ears 



* Browning never returned to Florence after the death of 
his wife, though he survived her more than 28 years, and 
visited Italy during that time. 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 129 

and gives us knowledge of your desire to have 
our expression. Mamma is here and radiantly 
happy, and I am very proud of her. 

It will be a festival of talk when you first come 
over here. And these great men who are using 
you to send their messages by you to the waiting 
world, will have to stand aside a little while until 
we Ve had all the talk we want, and told you all the 
things that are in our hearts. I am only here now 
for the daily message from the family, and when 
other messages are completed, we are to have the 
last day, or at least the larger part of it, for our 
personal expression. 

What a lot of beautiful doves there are here 
in Boston! They are so tame and seem to know 
that the people love them. And I like Boston, too ; 
I never knew much about city life, but I like this 
city, and I find many of your spirit friends like it, 
too, and walk about with you, enjoying the scenes 
once more. 

IVe been home, papa. We all go every little 
while, because it 's a place that calls us through its 
associations. 

You know the lovely golden rod that is so beau- 

10 



130 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

tif ul there. I love that almost as much as the roses 
in June, and we have many of those around in that 
part of the country, you know. 

Aunt Mathilde* was not so well acquainted with 
the philosophy of spirit communion as Mamma, 
and yet she has found her way to her own home ** 
on many occasions, and has been able to leave an 
influence at the house. She thanks you for the 
things you sent to her after Mamma's passing 
away. Some of them were useful, and some were 
mementoes, the picture for one. She is trying 
to tell it to me, papa, and I am doing the best I 
can. She is quite happy with her father and 
mother, and mamma, and the rest of us. She says 
it is strange that she and Carrie should leave hus- 
bands behind to mourn them, and good husbands 
they were, too, were and are. 

I will tell you more about my life here when I 
come the next time; but Mr. Whitman wants to 
use a little time now, and so I kiss my fingers good 
bye to you, and let him talk. Paulie. 

Mr. Whitman's message which came in here, 



* Mrs. Corson's sister. 

** Her home was at Tarrytown, on the Hudson. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 131 

has been omitted at his own request. It was some- 
what mixed up, due, it may have been, to the con- 
ditions being, from some unknown cause or other, 
unfavorable for the successful delivery of his mes- 
sage. If that were so, it was the only time during 
the twenty-four seances where there was any 
hitch in the messages. The conditions could not 
have been more favorable. That may have been 
partly due to the fact that I am not an incredu- 
lous investigator, who applies an insulated bump- 
tious intellect to a spiritual subject, and thus mars 
the nice conditions required for successful me- 
diumship. 

CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

Dear Hiram, this is almost the first time, at 
these seances, that I have used the name so dear 
to me, so loved and revered. I sometimes get so 
hungry for a long talk with you ; and yet I am up- 
held by the consciousness that by and bye we 
are to be together, with no fear of separation even 
for a short time. Does it seem so long as it has 
been since I went away from you? To me, it 
seems some times like an eternity ; and then again 



132 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

it seems but yesterday that we were making plans 
and working together in that dear familiar way 
which had been ours so long. 

Mr. Whitman desires me to say to you that he 
did not intend to become so involved in his mes- 
sage ; and then he smiles, and with a look of keen 
humor, he says, ' perhaps to be involved is to be 
Browningesque, and to be Browningesque would 
certainly be the height of any poet's ambition'. 
And Mr. Browning laughs back at him, and says 
that certainly his poetry was not always involved, 
but was very plain and straightforward; and they 
both seem to feel the good comradeship of people 
interested in a common cause, and having no per- 
sonal feeling about any thing. 

Paulie told you that I looked young ; and I want 
to tell you that your young spirit, your wonderful 
expression of vigor, intellectually, make me very 
proud of you. This is so personal ; but it is the 
way I feel ; and I am sure that the manner of your 
living has much to do with it. 

I must say good night, dear, and I shall be here 
with the Brownings tomorrow. Send my love to 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 133 

Eugene. Good night again, dear, with love un- 
speakable. Youk Carrie. 
20 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control : You have a spiritual feast every 
day. 

Your wife is right by your side. She says she 
will bring Dr. Mott* as soon as she can; he is so 
much engaged with Eugene. ** 

She turns to Mr. and Mrs. Browning and says : 

Was there ever a more joyous company than 
gathers here at this twilight service. She then 
speaks to you : 

If you could see them you would be surprised 
and happy, for very often there are many friends 
whom you never get a message from, who gather 
here to watch the work, and enjoy the expressions 
of interest and the interchange of thought. 

I am glad that we had that visit in Venice** with 

* Dr. Valentine Mott, one of the most famous surgeons of 
his time (1785—1865). 

** My son, Dr. Eugene Rollin Corson, surgeon and physician 
in Savannah, Georgia. 

*** In November 1889, Mr. Browning, then in his 78th year, 
showed great fulness of vitality, and was looking forward to 
more poetic work. We were to spend the following May with 
him at De Vere Gardens, in London; but he passed away on 
the 12th of December, at the Palazzo Rezzonico, the residence 
of his son, only a month after we parted. 



134 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Mr. Browning, which gave us an insight into 
Browning the man. It was beautiful as a memory 
for both of us; and I have often heard him say 
that it was one of the pleasantest occasions of his 
life, and made it very easy for him to find his way 
to you after his spirit left the body. I will not 
talk any longer now, but let them have the first 
strength of the sitting, that they may speak freely 
and fully without becoming weary. Carrie. 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

Yes, I am here, my friend, and more glad than 
I can express, to find myself in active communica- 
tion with you. I long many times to find some 
avenue of expression to the world. And yet it is 
hard to speak definitely through the ordinary 
channels. 

There are so many people who are psychic in a 
degree, but have no response to those touches of 
soul expression which mean so much to us. And 
there are others who are strong and intelligent, 
and psychic, as well, whose gifts are prostituted 
for the gold and glint of material things. So you 
can well understand what a rare combination it 



ROBERT BROWNING 135 

is to have an intellect which can appreciate, a 
spirit which hungers for, a heart that receives, our 
ministrations in joy. I refer to you, dear friend, 
and I am eager to express my satisfaction with 
your devotion and unerring perception of our ef- 
forts to speak what we know. 

I am clear that you will understand what I say 
when I tell you I am still singing my songs, and 
writing my verses, if for no other ear than for 
Elizabeth's. She insists that I keep expressing, 
in the same way, for the very love of the art ; and 
love is the eternal passion, surviving all experien- 
ces of disappointment, distress, or death, rising 
supreme, and, as with wings, bearing the soul to 
God. 

Take every thing else out of the heart of man- 
kind, but leave love; for so only shall men know 
the divinity that broods over the world. 

All the hours of sadness, that sense of desola- 
tion which comes to the soul that knows not of life 
after death, when the objects of its affection slip 
out into the unfathomable sea of eternity, can be 
borne and borne with heroic patience, because of 
the love that made such sorrow possible. 



136 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Small men save themselves much pain by lov- 
ing little; but such souls never reach the heights 
of inexpressible love which makes it possible for 
one to wade through the depths of hell. 

If love is but at the other side of the world, one 
may pass through torment or torture unconscious 
of the condition, seeing only the eyes of light and 
hearing only the voice of the heart's choice. 

Think not, dear friend, that we are unconscious 
of the various changes in your world. We too can 
see the sin, hear the cries of agony, and watch the 
oppressor's hand swing ever and ever again the 
lash about the naked feet of those who know not 
how to rise. But these things' do not hurt us in 
the same way in which they would hurt and grieve 
us if we were still in the mortal world ; for we are 
also conscious of the daily outpouring of love 
from the ethereal spheres, and the inflowing power 
of wisdom, and wisdom which makes for better 
conditions even among the lowest of the race. 

If some efforts of ours over here stirs the pul- 
ses of the spirit nation until they march to the 
succour and relief of their earthly brothers, we 



) 



ROBERT BROWNING 187 

feel that we have had a part in the relief and up- 
building of the world. 

I always feel a sense of regret that I have done 
so little. The clarion note of Truth sounding 
ever in my ears, arouses me to do more and more. 
Much more is expected of one who is attuned to 
the higher expressions of life than of those who 
dwell in the vallies and catch no radiant beam 
from beyond the heights. 

Tennyson and I are friends, the closest friends, 
and we sometimes have our quiet little laugh over 
the versifiers who catch the ear of the people with 
a cunning manner of metre. Between you and us, 
I may be allowed to say, it seems like kindergarten 
songs for little children not out of the nursery. 
We would like to see a return to the strong, vigor- 
ous writing, and yet in the vigor to have none of 
the beauty lost. 

Elizabeth, standing by my side, is content to 
sing her songs and speak her praises to and of me. 
I would rather it were not so ; and yet I sometimes 
think that exquisite expression of tenderness and 
love, which is the key-note of all her work, can 



138 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

never come without the personal touch with the 
idol of its affection. 

There are so many things I want to say to you. 

I am not sorry, now, that I lived so long after 
she went away; but I confess to you that all my 
types of women were beautiful and blessed by my 
perfect knowledge of one pure woman 's soul. Had 
I never known Elizabeth, I never could have writ- 
ten 'The Ring and the Book.' I know you have 
thought it. Pompilia, seeking to express her soul 
through such adverse conditions, was a soul look- 
ing up out of the dark into God's face. Her per- 
fect acknowledgment of the perfect love through 
all her simplicity and ignorance of the world's 
manners, was only the consciousness of a soul 
awakened by the light of supreme and untarnished 
love. 

So, through all my work, you will find Elizabeth 
written there ; and it is with satisfaction I tell you 
this. She taught it me ; she was full of faith, and 
beyond the women of her time in her understand- 
ing of their upreachings and misunderstandings 
of themselves. 

Perhaps at this time I may add, how glad I am 



ROBERT BROWNING 139 

that our friend, Miss Lilian Whiting is writing 
the book of our combined lives. So many times 
you have felt that all had not been said for me, 
and you have wished that the hand of the clock of 
your life had been turned back that you might 
write and work more for me. I thank you for the 
wish to do this ; and I know, some day, others will 
arise to say what is needed, if it be needed, in the 
world. 

I used to think that God sent his agents into the 
world to keep his purpose clean and sweet for 
the people ; but I did not think it was done in this 
natural and normal way that you and I are talking 
to-day. 

I am not through yet. 

America has always appealed to me; and I 
think, perhaps, I have more appreciative readers 
in Boston than in London. It is hard to arouse an 
old and steady-going public into enthusiasm over 
any new and unusual work. 

Oh, how I love to lift my face to God's bright stars, 

And learn my lesson there, 
How calm and still above life's jars 

They float in ambient air, 
And through the dark which makes their light shine ever more 

and more, 
I catch the tracing of God's hand that holds them to his shore. 



140 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

That is only a thought which I try to express. 

I think my prose is better than my rhyme, this 
time; but my thought was to write through you 
something longer and more beautiful in verse. I 
will do it some day. Elizabeth wants to speak to 
you now. 

Eobert Browning. 

The Control : She clasps her hands together in 
an enthusiastic way, and smiles, as she begins to 
talk to you. 

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 

0, dear, dear, Dr. Corson, I am so happy I can 
hardly tell it in words. Robert is so good, so no- 
ble, and I am so glad to have him with me; but I 
still have a little lonely chamber in my heart for 
my boy. And I often think if he would only open 
the doors for me, as your son does for his mother, 
I should not be so lonely. I do get very much joy 
from just being beside him, at times; but it does 
seem as if I could not wait to have this truth be- 
come a universal knowledge, so that we mothers 
would feel no sensation of aloofness when we come 
over here, and leave our babies in the world. 



ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING 141 

There is more than just a joy in being able to 
speak to people still in the body. 

There is a great field for usefulness. I am a 
sort of utilitarian, after all, you see ; and I would 
like to mend all these broken threads in the gar- 
ment of life, and let God's love shine through the 
perfect whole until the world is radiantly happy, 
and through its happiness, comes its best expres- 
sion. 

It is practical and sensible to believe in the 
complete life; and it would revolutionize the art 
of living if computations could be made of the 
effort, the money, the time, that are put into that 
great casket of universal death. The figures 
would be stupendous, and all thinking men and 
women would rise to stay the evil. 

So, don't you see that every time we help some 
one to come out from under the shadow of death, 
we have made a better citizen, a better lover of 
God, and a more perfect soul; and all the dirges 
and psalm tunes would soon be lost in a grand 
paean of joy and victory. Up, up, up, must the 
soul ever soar ; and every thing which we may do 
to turn the eye of the spirit toward the heavenly 



142 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

heights, brings the kingdom of God nearer to the 
grey old world. 

Your wife is such a lovely personality, and so 
fond of all poetic expressions; and I whisper to 
you that the boy who is left, your boy, has a touch 
of that divine fire in his soul ; and all those vibrant 
tones of melody which poets only sing, find re- 
sponse in his heart. He sometimes thinks that he 
is a hard-headed business man working in his pro- 
fession in a most practical way, and this is true 
of a part of him ; but his spirit is not dormant, nor 
entranced and held in bondage by material condi- 
tions, for all through his life is running a little 
brook of spiritual inspiration \ whose waters leap 
and dance in joy whenever the sunlight falls upon 
them, and on whose bank sweet violets grow, and 
mosses green with blue forget-me-nots make 
beauty everywhere. 

The Control: That's the little stream of spirit- 
ual life, isn't it? 

It is most gratifying to find him as he is; but 
about his special gifts, and psychic powers, I will 
let his mother or his guides speak to you some 
other day. 



ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING 143 

I fear I ought not to stay any longer now, but 
I shall come again, this week, if I may. 

Tell Miss Whiting that I sometimes feel as if 
I were in her body, so readily do I fuse with her 
spirit. And sometimes when her hand is writing, 
and her eyes suddenly fall upon it, she is im- 
pressed with how much it looks like mine, and yet 
she would never dare to speak of this. It seems 
to her so egotistical to think so ; but it is true. My 
hand is on hers, and almost transfigures it. She 
will understand. 

Elizabeth B. Browning. 

21 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 
JOSEPH COESON. 

Dear father, so much loved by each of us, so 
revered by me, I want to bring you a message, to- 
day. If I could tell you all the wonderful things 
I see, the wonderful knowledge we obtain by con- 
tact with spirits from the wisdom sphere, or the 
wonderful love we feel as we come into the pres- 
ence of spirits from the Love sphere, you would 
feel that we had been well cared for and well 
taught during our growth in the spirit land. 



144 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I am so glad I had birth in the Earth life;* it 
gave me a start toward the progressive life which 
comes only to sonls born of love. 

I hear so many theories of life, its beginning, 
and its limitations, that I am surprised; for life 
seems to have no beginning, and no limitations 
except as man imagines or creates them. We are 
so free, it is like an elective course in college. We 
follow our desires, and learn through the fulfil- 
ment of them what is best for us. Of the First 
Great Cause, the primal expression, I know no 
more than you. I only know I am not concerned 
about it ; and it is ludicrous to see men and women 
spending lives and energies in a pursuit after 
knowledge of the unknowable. The laws which 
govern the places where one stays may be under- 
stood, and after that, everything of importance 
may be understood through coming into harmony 
with the governing law. I mean by everything 
the day by day knowledge which -lifts the soul out 
of the region of uselessness into sublime heights 
of service. 



* He was but about a month in the physical body; born 
Feb. 24, 1857. 



JOSEPH CORSON 145 

We consider Mr. Whitman a seer, a prophet, a 
diviner of hidden meanings of life; and he is al- 
ways surprised when we express ourselves in that 
way, because he expects that every soul knows and 
sees what he knows and sees. That is why he suf- 
fered with heart ache and sorrow ; for he sang his 
songs blithely and freely and expected men would 
know and understand his spirit. And when they 
did not, it chilled him like night falling too soon 
on the feathered songster of the forest. 

[I praised what he said of Whitman.] 

Thank you, father, for your appreciative word. 
I long to speak perfectly and understandingly of 
him who was and is your friend, and is our teacher 
and companion. He is standing beside me as I 
dictate this message to you, and the tears come in- 
to his eyes ;* but they only make them shine more 
brightly and give me the assurance that I have 
touched his heart. 

Are you not glad, dear father, that the poets 
have immortal power 1 They are so much more im- 
portant in the world than the mathematicians, at 



* Only an Earthly mode of expression, as the control ex- 
plained it. 

11 



146 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

least I think so ; but Mr. Whitman smiles and says, 
if there were no mathematicians, the poets would 
starve. Perhaps you know what he means. 

Mr. Whitman was so concerned and troubled 
over his message,* the other day, that we came to- 
gether, to-day, to express a few of our tenderest 
feelings of him to you. 

I think I will say no more now, because Mr. 
Longfellow desires to speak to you. He is so ge- 
nial, so sunny, that I am sure you will have a beau- 
tiful time with him. With love, your son in the 
spirit sphere, 

Joseph Corson. 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 

I have asked permission to come to you, this 
afternoon. A week ago, to-day, you stood in my 
study,** and the rooms where you went have pos- 
sessed a new atmosphere since that time. It is 
true I often go there, but I feel sometimes like the 
grandpa by the fireside who sits and thinks of 
other days in a dead past. But I am happy to say 

* There appeared to be some disturbance of the conditions 
at the seance when he gave his message. The thought and 
language were somewhat confused. 

** In the Craigie House, in Cambridge. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 147 

that the active, interested, and conscious expres- 
sion to you, at that time, gave me a more definite 
and present-day feeling. 

America is a wonderful country in its possibili- 
ties for romance and picture, in story and song. 
But many of our poets have confined themselves 
to expressions of the reformer and of society, and 
the little every-day occurrences that do nothing 
except pass time away, or sound a bugle note. 

You know how I love the sound of the singing 
song, that combination of words and measure 
which flows into the memory and sings on and on 
forever. 

I find so much among the Indians over here 
that is great and noble, pathetic and sweet, cun- 
ning and shrewd, weaving itself all into a wonder- 
ful story of aboriginal life, and I think sometimes 
if I had this knowledge added to my love of the 
Indian race, I might have sung more enduring 
songs than Hiawatha or Evangeline, or my 
Legends of New England life. 

I believe, friend Corson, that no one knows so 
well the imperfections of his work as the poet him- 
self. It all sounds so simple and so easy after it 



148 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

is arranged that the average critic has no sense 
of the time and thought spent in making the per- 
fect couplet or the undying sonnet. 

I admire Tennyson so much, more than I can 
tell you; and our intercourse with you, aside from 
our common interest in letters, has brought about 
a friendship so strong that I am proud and happy 
in it. 

I confess to you that I had an inexpressible de- 
sire to know more and more of letters. At one 
time, my poetry was secondary in my desires ; but 
I believe now that I was urged on to express, as I 
did, by spirits who saw the need of that sort of ex- 
pression in America, and my adaptability to their 
message. We are all mediums in degree, but we 
do not all know it. 

You remember Hawthorne. He has never 
spoken to you from the spirit; but he desires to, 
and begs me to offer you his greetings, and say 
to you that it gives him delight to come here with 
the other good friends of yours who are here. 

Longfellow. 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 149 

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 

This is beautiful, and yet not strange to me, for 
often in the past, I have been perfectly conscious 
of my power to draw near to my friends at will, 
and to use certain powers for their helpfulness, 
or, otherwise, if I had been inclined. 

I, too, loved Florence like many of your other 
friends; but there was something in sturdy New 
England which gave me the best inspiration, and 
brought me the best credit for work. 

There is one book you have not mentioned* 
which was always dear to me, and one I had a 
strange fascination for, 'The Marble Faun/ It 
is unlike my other books. It might almost have 
been written by another person. 

Of all your friends, perhaps no one was more 
definitely a psychic or medium than I. I did not 
know at the time what the influences meant. But 
I used to find it almost impossible to take my place 



* When I welcomed him, and expressed my pleasure at 
his visit to the seance, I spoke of my admiration of his 'Scar- 
let Letter' and 'The House of the Seven Gables,' and of the 
choral atmosphere in which each was enveloped, as exhibiting 
his great artistic power. But I did not mention 'The Marble 
Faun.' 



150 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

with people and be as I should in my intercourse 
with them. A story would haunt me for days and 
months, and then suddenly I would begin to write, 
and the whole plot and story was in my mind, and 
I could not write quickly enough. It was like a 
torrent that I could not stay; and when it was 
done I would be exhausted and almost ill. I was 
not proud of it, but I had no control over it 

I am happy with my dear one. Such love as we 
had for each other seems more than ordinary to 
me. The appreciation which she gave me was my 
support and buoyed me up through days of dis- 
couragement.* 

My friend, Mr. Longfellow, was a friend through 
all the struggles of those days, when I worked and 
worked and seemed to get no recognition. 

I am talking a great deal about myself ; but it is 
so pleasant to recall the past and to talk with you 
about some of the experiences long since forgot- 
ten until now. 

We all owe you more than we can tell, for the 



* His marriage with Sophia Peabody was a happily and 
beautifully assorted one, and equaled, in that respect, the 
marriage of Robert Browning with Elizabeth Barrett, which 
is certainly the most that can be said of it. 



NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE 151 

careful and critical and appreciative expressions 
of our work.* 

Such men as you who understand our work and 
effort, and make it the effort of your life to teach 
people how to read us, are rare, and we remember 
and are grateful for any one who shows such 
knowledge of our spirit. 

I think ' The Scarlet Letter ' was written by some 
other spirit, just as definitely as I, to-day, am able 
to use another personality to express myself to 
you. But that is of little consequence if the work 
that is done proves of some value in the world of 
books. 

I would send many words of gladness to you 
that I have been able to become a part of this com- 
pany in your room to-day. 

Nathaniel Hawthobne. 

The Control: Your wife comes so close to you 
and puts her hand on your own, and says : 

I am so glad to have you made happy by the 
messages from dear Hawthorne. I, too, loved his 
i Scarlet Letter,' and never thought it a strange 
story, but a wonderful one. 

* The allusion Is to my presentation of their works as a 
professor of English Literature for nearly half a century. 



152 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

There are many who seek you and would be glad 
to come ; but we can only have now and then a new 
communicator. 

I am going to try and have Dr. Mott come to- 
morrow. He was very much pleased that you 
asked him to come, and will try, tomorrow, to ex- 
press himself for Eugene. 

Paulie is here with me, and Emil, and they both 
want me to say to you, 'papa dear, we are just as 
faithful to you as if we took all the time, and we 
want you to know that we are only waiting so that 
some of these interesting friends may tell you of 
their friendship for you'. 

I hope, Hiram, that after you go back, I may be 
able to send you a message, or else arrange, by 
and bye, for this medium to go to you. 

Allston street, house No. 6.* High double steps 
of stone, with iron railings, go up on each side, and 
a little railing divides the top stone in the middle 



* I had asked whether she remembered the house in Bos- 
ton in which we were married. I wished to visit it. I had 
myself no recollection of it. We were married by Dr. Cush- 
man, Sept. 13, 1854. I went, after the stance, to the Boston 
public library, and consulted the City Directory of that year, 
and found that the Rev. Robert Cushman lived at No. 6, Alls- 
ton St. 



CAROLINE CORSON 153 

between the two entrances. Dr. Cushman had, at 
first, the whole double house for his young ladies' 
school. It is now used as a lodging house, and 
there's a tailor shop below. It is near the State 
House.* I was interested, too, in the old church. ** 
How strange it looks ! How peculiar to have the 
church divided into little sections *** with seats all 
around. I am glad you went there, for the novelty 
of seeing a church in such a vicinity pleased me. 
Did you hear the sparrows outside the church? 
[No.] 

I don't care for old cemeteries, although it was 
the place where the bodies of Benjamin Franklin's 
father and mother were put away. But that did 
not mean so much to me as the old church.**** Is 
not the subway wonderful 1 

* I found this description of the house to be all perfectly 
correct, even as to its being a lodging house; the word 
'Rooms' was on the wall. In 1854, this was a well inhabited 
street of the city. 

** King's Chapel, built in 1754. 

*** By 'sections' she meant the large square pews with 
seats on three sides of the squares. 

**** The old cemetery alluded to is that near King's Chapel, 
used as a burial place as early as 1630. There is a large mon- 
ument to Franklin's father and mother. My wife must have 
read the inscription, when we were there (Miss Lilian Whiting 
and myself), on our way to King's Chapel. We were accom- 
panied in our visits to the places mentioned in the message, 
by my wife, daughter, and sons, and other members of the 
Spirit Band. They saw all that we saw, and more too. 



154 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Now good night, dear, and tomorrow we come 
again. 

22 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

At the opening of this seance, I read to my wife 
the letter to her of our son, Dr. Eugene Rollin 
Corson, which he wrote in reply to his mother's 
message to him. The following is her message in 
reply. 

I love Eugene and all his dear ones, and am glad 
that my message gave him joy. I felt the joy was 
mine; and it is little when I think of the many 
times I am in his home, and able to see him wher- 
ever he goes. I find it hard to realize that he is 
not as conscious of me as I am of his life and pur- 
suits. 

I don't want the children to forget their grand- 
ma, for I want them to grow up with that con- 
sciousness of the intimate relation of spirit loved 
ones with those still on Earth. And sometimes 
there may be great help given them, if they under- 
stood that their thought helps to make the bridge 
over which we come to serve them. 

Cakrie. 



VALENTINE MOTT 155 

My wife brought Dr. Valentine Mott to this 
seance, that he might give a message to be sent to 
our son. 

Dear Dr. Eugene Corson: It has been a long 
time since I attempted to express through words 
my interest in you;* but never for an interest has 
my care been remitted, or my interest in your pro- 
fessional life abated. Not all professional men re- 
tain an interest in the life-work from which they 
are called when they enter the higher life. But I 
have yet to find anything of more devouring in- 
terest than the profession which was mine, and is 
yours, and in which we are mutually concerned, 
not only for the daily rise and fall of human life, 
but for the great strides forward which the men 
at the head have made. 

It used to be our purpose to alleviate pain and 
make death as easy as possible. Now we are try- 
ing to oust death from his stronghold in the hu- 
man family, and not only alleviate pain but fit men 
to express all that is in them. I believe that no 
man can perfectly express the highest gifts within 

* He received messages from Dr. Mott, a few years ago, 
through the mediumship of Mrs. Mayer, of New York city, 
recently deceased. 



156 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

him, in an imperfect body ; and the sooner we medi- 
cal men recognize this, we shall understand that 
sin is a disease, and must be treated by the medK 
cal profession instead of cajoled by the pulpit, 
punished by the barrister, or forgiven by the Son 
of Man hanging on a cross. 

I have long felt a desire to express myself on 
this especial theme ; and I would like nothing bet- 
ter than to take a part of each year to study the 
health conditions and the physical structures of 
the criminal classes. 

All sorts of instruments to save the early tor- 
ture of the sick and ill, have been invented since 
I came over here. Many discoveries have been 
put into operation, from the pressing of the 
thumb and forefinger on certain parts of the body 
to lessen the pulsation at the particular spot, and 
relieve the pain, to the powerful anaesthetics which 
put to sleep the patient, and allow the skilful op- 
erator undisputed sway of the diseased portion. 

Our clumsy mechanics, in operating on the body, 
were but the beginnings of a marvelous epoch of 
healing and saving the diseased ones. 

I am pleased at the recognition you have given 



VALENTINE MOTT 157 

me in your home ; for I am indeed your guide and 
helper ; and while I have very little interest in any 
recognition which the world may give, still I be- 
lieve the laborer is worthy of his hire ; and 1 want 
you to have what recognition belongs to you for 
your faithfulness and unswerving devotion to the 
call of duty. 

I say over and over again the world is mad. It 
chases its idols, captures them, sets them on the 
pinnacles of fame, and then, one day, in childish 
rage, knocks them to pieces for their impotence. 

How stupid, how ungrateful, and how little, to 
urge a man to keep moving on in his work for the 
world's release. There must be something deeper 
than an ear attuned to the world's plaudits; an 
inner conviction that nothing in the world is so 
important and demanding as the cry of need. 
That is what you have, dear boy, an intense desire 
to do well the thing you have started to do; and 
my hand and heart is with you. 

I like to see the American 'get there' once in a 
while, and not have all the discoveries brought 
across the water for the profession on this side. 

I have been interested in stovaine. It has not 



158 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

yet been demonstrated to me that it will do all 
that is claimed for it ; and I am doubtful if opera- 
tions performed on a conscious patient, even 
though that patient suffered no pain, would be 
successful in all kinds of work. The conscious- 
ness of what is going on would bring a nervous 
tension that might react for the worse. And yet 
I realize that the fear of becoming unconscious un- 
der the influence of anaesthetics, often produces 
deleterious effect. 

Patients must always have complete confidence 
in physicians for perfect and successful perfor- 
mances. N 

All this seems so far away from the real father- 
ly interest which I feel for you, that I am inclined 
to apologize; and yet I am sure that you will be 
pleased to know that I am not stupidly ignoring 
the advancement and the effort at advancement 
which is constantly going on. 

I am always pleased when you look at the books 
which contain certain extracts about me; and 
when you look at the pictures, and say to your- 
self, ' I need you very much, to-day, I hope you can 
be with me.' I try especially to go with you at 



VALENTINE MOTT 159 

such times ; but many, many times, when you are 

not thinking definitely of me I am there. 

[The Control: He stops to think, right now.] 
I had a long life; and if I had lived twice as 

long, I could have used every moment of the time 

to good advantage. 

[The Control: He stops right there and says:] 
I want to say more, but my strength is gone. I 

will come to you again some other time. 

Valentine Mott. 

Doctor, I shall be here another week. Perhaps 
you can come some day within that time. 

The Control : He replied, * I will try. ' 

The Control : There 's the spirit of a woman. I 
think she is your sister. She comes forward with 
your mother and she says : 

I think there is no happier family in all the 
spirit spheres than ours. The light of truth shines 
into our home and gives us all the joy that sun- 
shine brings. 



160 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Mother is the same dear mother whom you 
knew, always unselfishly looking after the rest, 
and finding her peace in the goodness of her chil- 
dren. 

You remember how, when we were small, she 
always expected us to be truthful and upright, 
and without fear ; and how our uncles were spoken 
of with such pride, much like this : Your uncle Hi- 
ram was a most excellent man, or, your uncle Wil- 
liam took a stand against slavery. 

Our people were a sort of Saints' Calendar to 
which we were referred ; and we were expected to 
uphold the family dignity, and be as good as they. 
And to-day mother says she has no sorrow for 
anything her children did. While they each kept 
an independent spirit, they were most dutiful and 
lovely. 

I wish I cold tell you of the blessed evenings 
we have, not evenings such as you have in your 
life, but the quiet time that comes between one 
duty and another, wherein we rest and refresh our 
spirits in friendly conversation and quiet uplift- 
ing communion. 



CLARA CORSON SHOLL 161 

We usually take that time for rest when our 
friends are resting in the Earth life; for when 
they are active, in the dangerous pursuits of 
physical life, we draw very near to them for their 
help and protection. So you see, we have a sort 
of a night here. It isn't going to sleep, shutting 
up the sense realm as you do, but a time when no 
demanding labors are thought of. Our heaven 
is not a place of eternal sleep and rest, but an ac- 
tive life of love and service. 

I fear I am staying too long, dear; but we all 
come again tomorrow. 

Claea Coeson Sholl. 

23 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control: I see Mr. Tennyson turn and 
bow to your wife and family, as he steps into the 
aura of your personality. Then, with very great 
earnestness he assures you of the deep gratitude 
he feels for this opportunity. 

ALFRED TENNYSON. 

We are a company of spirits interested not only 
in the finest expression of the aspirations of men 

12 



162 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

and women, but in the power* that touches men 
and women and sets their aspirations aflame. 

A poet must speak from the depth of his being ; 
and the best songs he sings are those that are born 
in experience. 

Sometimes for months before I could write a 
line, the essence of my poem was in my heart, and 
kept flowing up, flowing up, until it touched my 
brain, and then I began to write. Then there were 
other occasions when an event would produce an 
effect of unlocked doors to some hidden chamber, 
and there would rush forth little fragrant songs 
that had to find the light of day through my help. 

Not always are the most studied and the longest 
pondered-over verses the best. But there are ten- 
drils and roots to the plant of poetry, and they 
find nourishment out of sight in the soil of the 
spirit, and grow all unconscious until at last the 
flower-time comes, and the blossom is fragrant 
and sweet. 

Sorrow has ever been a theme for the versifier ; 
and goodness, ideal goodness, has always found 



* Poetic power. 



ALFRED TENNYSON 163 

its lovers among men who could sing its praises 
in rhyme. 

I sometimes think, if I were to return to Earth 
again, I would make my life the life of a poet, just 
as before, only more complete and perfect. 

I love the Nature scenes, the trees, the hills, the 
crags, the sea; they talk to me, and my answers 
are my songs. 

I feel that I am talking too much about what I 
felt; but you know, my friend, when one speaks 
in intimate terms to one whose spirit is respon- 
sive, it is not of commonplace things he speaks, 
but of those feelings and throbbings of his heart 
and spirit which alone make him what he is. I 
have little patience with ordinary conversation. 
It is belittling ; it drags men from the heights, and 
is no good to any one. And I care very little for 
any reputation I may have gained for either good 
or bad conversational powers; and sometimes 
when I seemed surly and churlish, when the in- 
quisitive and curious tried to make me open my 
mouth, and say words, it was only because I had 
nothing to say; and having nothing to say, how 
could I say it? 



164 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

With my family and my dear ones, I am sure 
there was no feeling of restraint, but we talked 
our love idylls in love's own familiar language. 
And if we talked by by and day day, and that sort 
of talk, to the little fellows, it was because that 
expressed our tenderness and our stooping devo- 
tion to their dear little intellects. 

You know well enough, from your intimacy 
with my lines, that I desired always to have men 
keep before them a picture of the lofty life, and 
the noble times; and yet I wanted their hearts 
soothed by any tender little murmur of running 
brook, or whisper of nodding violet, that might 
be borne to their tired ears. 

What am I doing over here? Oh, so much, to as- 
sure myself that the knights and ladies, the beauti- 
ful and strong and lovely, are not all of the olden 
time, but are living in your world, fighting their 
battles for truth with the same ardor as the vel- 
vet-clothed youths of the golden days for posses- 
sion of the blithesome maids they loved. 

I do not claim to be a reformer. I like strength 
without reformation. And, indeed, strength is 
reformation, for weakness makes men fall, and 



ALFRED TENNYSON 165 

women stumble, and blots out the picture of good- 
ness and power. 

I have been in your little circles at your home, 
with the blessed company of kindred spirits, many 
times in the past, and I always feel it is a privilege 
to be allowed, or, rather, invited, to sit down in a 
man's castle, and commune with him, as we have 
done with you. 

Sometimes, when some of the friends have 
spoken of your loneliness, and the joy it would be 
for you to close the doors of the cottage, set the 
house in order, and start out upon the journey 
through the spirit spheres with your waiting dar- 
lings, I have said, oh, he's not so lonely that he 
needs to begin to think about coming over here. 
A man at 84 doesn't feel much older than at 70. 
He has a few more limitations, may have to look 
out for draughts, nurse the gout, tie his kerchief a 
little tighter around his withered neck, when he 
faces the sleet; but there's a good deal of juice 
left in the fruit yet, and, with an active spirit, he 
can puff his cares away with a few whiffs from his 
loved pipe, and float in fancy back into the past, 
and enjoy his life. 



166 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I would have been glad to live until I was 90, 
and I was older a little, when I went away, than 
you are now. I had a great many things to be 
happy over. My friends were so kind, and so gen- 
erous. 

Lady Tennyson is with me, and sends greetings 
to you, and would suggest that the beauty and joy 
of the spirit life for her is greatly augmented be- 
cause she can have me to herself, once in a while, 
without demands extraordinary from the people 
and the queen. 

The queen is courtly yet simple ; a woman with 
all her queenliness, a queen witlr all her womanli- 
ness; and the happiness which she enjoys in the 
realm where her consort dwells with her, and all 
her children and friends are able to have free and 
familiar intercourse with her, is beautiful to see. 

I am surprised that many of my poems are 
still in favor ; and I had hoped we might have some 
stronger laureate arise before this. 

The most remarkable thing about it all is, how 
did he* get there? Certainly not by merit. And 
when positions of honor, which should be abso- 

* Alfred Austin. 



ALFRED TEX XY SOX 167 

lutely honorable, become commerce in political 
centres, the laurel no longer brings joy to the 
heart of the man who would write his best for his 
country and his king. Watson, what of William 
Watson f What a pity he wrote ' The Woman with 
the Serpent's Tongue.' Perhaps he may yet be 
able to redeem himself. 

All genius is akin to madness, from the popular 
standpoint, which demands of a man his surrender 
to all political intrigue, social commonplaces, and 
the ordinary affairs of life; but genius bids him 
soar away from the commercial atmosphere to 
the heights were the gods play with thunder- 
bolts, and the majestic stars sing songs to the si- 
lent night, that are unheard and unheeded by the 
throng in the valleys. 

Stephen Phillips, I speak of him. You'll re- 
member one wonderful poem,* prophetic and far- 
seeing. 

You see, friend, now and then, a man in the 

lower realm, lower only in the sense of primary, 

catches an inspiration, and writes one or two 

* I did not ask him, at the time, to what poem he alluded; 
but at a sitting at home, after my return from Boston, he 
said it was 'Marpessa.' 



168 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

beautiful things; but that does not make a poet. 
The poet lives in the atmosphere for poetry. 'In 
Memoriam' I believed touched the hearts of peo- 
ple, because it sang a song of the common loss. 

I could not write that, to-day ; it is a dirge that 
one could not write in the sunshine and knowledge 
of life after death. My Geraint and Enid, (you 
remember how beautiful was Enid, her trust, her 
confidence, and goodness,) I love to dwell upon to- 
day. 

I must not speak more of my own work now ; but 
this I want to tell you: think of me sometimes sit- 
ting in the sunshine where the scent of purple 
grapes makes fragrant the air, smoking ambrosial 
pipe, as my thoughts fly earthward and I centre 
on some particular individual. Then turning my 
eyes in the direction my thoughts have taken, I 
find myself able to project a definite influence for 
good. Many of those sudden impulses to do some 
good and noble thing, come as definitely from the 
thought of people over here as if they were whis- 
pered in the ear by a wise friend in your own life. 

We are the finger of the Almighty, and may do, 
as the messengers and workers of the expression 



ALFRED TENNYSON 169 

of life, very much to bring peace and joy to men 
and women. I did not know this until I came in- 
to the spirit world. I was conscious of the pres- 
ence of spirits. I often thought them angels. I 
frequently knew them to be friends, and I thought 
they were sent, or permitted to come to me, for 
my comfort and consolation. I did not imagine 
that spirits were free to work in the sphere of 
Earth's conditions, to implant holy ideals in the 
brains of men, and to really set the machinery 
of ethical life into action. 

The better the men are who come over here, 
and the more of the good ones we get, the better 
it is for your world; for the influences men have 
about them, have a power over people in the body. 
I have gotten to a place where I resent criminal 
immigration to the spirit world. What can we do 
with them? Any more than you can do? I don't 
mean you, personally. They often deport them- 
selves and return to the country which turned 
them out, with their hatred and despair. If men 
were less concerned to lay up treasures on Earth, 
they would lay up more in Heaven, and find more 
peace and profit in the life of the present. 



170 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I fear I must wait and talk some other time on 
this subject. It is close to my heart. Good night. 

Alfked Tennyson. 

The Control: It's your wife who comes, and 
she says: 

Oh, how happy we are. It is more to us tkan 
we can express. And when I come, I am so in- 
terested to talk with you about our personal af- 
fection and family interests, that I often neglect 
to speak of the wonderful progress in thought, 
over here, and the vital interest we all have in the 
social problems of your Earth world. 

Joseph has been making a study of the economic 
values and conditions, and is extremely interested 
in the Jews. He thinks as a nation they have a 
right to exist, although no one gives them that 
right; so they are broken as a people into many 
fragments, and scattered over many lands. He 
3ias been to the home of Tolstoi, and has made a 
study of some of his work among the refugees. 
And when he grows enthusiastic, he is so beautiful, 
at least to my eyes, because the spirit of tolerance 
and brotherly interest is expressed in every fea- 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 171 

ture of his countenance, and every part of his 
body. 

Tolerance has to play a large part in the spirit 
of a well-poised person, because one might love 
the Jews and hate the man who hated the Jews, 
and sin just as much against his higher nature as 
if he hated the Jews simply and unreservedly in 
the first place. You know how some people find 
it hard to fight a battle for right unless they can 
hit some men somewhere. They could not calmly 
stand up and demand the right for a Jew, without 
giving a pretty hard shot at the men who do things 
against them. But Joseph's method is to love 
everybody as far as they are worthy of love and 
not express a partisan spirit because he has 
espoused a cause. He may tell you about it him- 
self, some day. 

You never knew my grand-mother, Janet Eol- 
lin, and I want to tell you a little about her. She 
is French, of course,* as proud of her descent as a 
prince would be of his descent from the King. 

There were many early trials during some hard 
days in France, which my people endured ; but 

* My wife was French, born and educated in France. 



1 72 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

they have all grown away; and grandma comes, 
this afternoon, and stoops down over you, and 
whispers a few French words, meaning, my pleas- 
ure to meet my little Carrie 's great American hus- 
band. She says: 'Your people and mine are on 
the most cordial and friendly relations, and we 
live near enough to each other so that we may di- 
vide the children between us. We are as proud 
of the boys and Paulie as your people are, and we 
want to see them at least half the time.' I only 
leave this word with you to-night. Good night. 

N Carrie. 

24 SEPTEMBEB, 1910. 

The Control: Paulie comes first this after- 
noon, and she says: papa dear, is this not 
beautiful for me to stand here, feeling that you 
are my father, and telling you how dear you are 
tome! 

Mamma and I are constant companions, and 
when you go to any place of interest, we follow 
along like two sprites that you cannot see, but the 
influence of whose presence you may feel. I went 
with you and Miss Lilian, yesterday, and saw the 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 173 

wonderful city of marble and flowers — the com- 
memorative place where lie the bodies of so many 
great men and noble women, and little children 
whose souls become stars in the dark night of their 
parents ' sorrow. I could hardly comprehend that 
Mount Auburn was a place consecrated to the dead. 
But the holy stillness of all human sounds, just 
the chatter of squirrels, the cawing of crows, the 
soft sounds of slowly moving feet, and a falling 
leaf, now and then, made it seem like a Sabbath 
day when no sound of ordinary life is heard. But 
I loved it. In my mind 's eye I could see the long 
processions of mourning friends, hear the sighs 
and sobs of those who wept without hope; and I 
felt a desire to carry the knowledge of the inter- 
penetration of spiritual life with all earthly life 
to those who need to know. daddy dear, I think 
ignorance is the sin of the world. Why do the 
ministers keep so still about these truths? Are 
they cowardly? or do they believe men are insane 
when they talk as you do? And if they don't 
know, why don't they find out? And how can they 
ask the people who lean on them, to turn their 
eyes toward God and thank him because he has 



174 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

taken away their loved ones? It's all dreadful 
and fearful to me when I think how ignorant 
people hold the minds of those who really want to 
know, in subjection and fear. 

All education is not in books, is it papa? Some 
times I am glad that I came over here so early, 
for I did not have much to unlearn. And I had 
such beautiful times planning surprises for you 
and Mamma and Eugene. And my brothers en- 
tered fully into all my plans. 

The old home, Cascadilla Cottage, is the sweet- 
est place on Earth to me ; but we have a home over 
here that is just as beautiful in its influence as that 
is, and has so much more to it, that I'm sure you'll 
be very happy when you come. 

We have a large hall where we expect you to 
read and express vocally for some of these dear 
friends of yours who are still writing beautiful 
poems. Mr. Longfellow says that he would rather 
hear you read some of his poems than hear some 
other people sing them, even though the accom- 
panying music were excellent and true. Isn't 
that a good compliment for you father? 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 175 

I saw the chapel,* yesterday; I like the old one 
with the grey towers better than the new one. I 
think I like buildings that have a tonch of time on 
their surface. 

I went to Italy with you and mamma, I, in the 
spirit land and you in the body ; and I heard Mrs. 
Browning** say that she loved old castles and old 
churches, and ruins, and that she always wanted 
to put her hand on the outside of the building, and 
sometimes even to touch her face to it, for such 
buildings seemed like old people who had ripened 
and matured 'neath setting suns and stately stars. 
Oh, she's a wonderful spirit, papa. She seems to 
have such a wide comprehension of great prob- 
lems, as if her soul had many, many centuries of 
experience. 

And, papa, I have been interested, too, in the 
old East Indian philosophies. Are they not 
strange and wonderful? Not all spirits are satis- 
fied of the truth of those religions, any more than 
they are all satisfied of the truth of our religion 



* In Mount Auburn, where I went yesterday with Miss 
Lilian Whiting. 

** My daughter was taken care of by Mrs. Browning in the 
Spirit World before her mother went over. 



176 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

of spiritualism. But anything that makes men 
have a better comprehension of the vastness of 
life and the possibilities of the soul, is good for 
them, I think ; and I always feel glad, to see people 
interested in something broader^ than boots and 
buttons. You know some people stop and feel 
that they filled their allotted spheres when they 
have kept buttons on the boots of their children, 
and gingerbread in their little stomachs. And if 
they send them to Sunday School, and give them a 
fair chance at education, they consider they have 
fairly won the honors of parenthood. 

I shall be a philosopher mysetf if I keep on, be- 
cause I keep adding to my knowledge by observa- 
tion and experience; and mamma says those are 
as good teachers as I could have. 

Emil and Joseph were with us, yesterday, and 
Emil began to calculate the vast sums of money 
expended on monuments; and he said he would 
like to take all those stones and build a temple 
right beside the gate where all the truths of im- 
mortality should be taught to everyone who en- 
tered the place to lay their dead away. 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 177 

The grass was green and the flowers were sweet ; 
but they were only beautiful as tributes to the 
memory; for those whose names were carved on 
many a stone, were busy and active in many a 
darkened corner of the Earth, where never a 
flower was seen, and never a bit of grass made car- 
pet for tired feet. For instance, Dr. Brooks often 
goes into the crowded tenement districts of the 
city, where he lived, and carries a radiant influ- 
ence like a Christ, and there are many, many more 
who serve in just such ways. And they always 
will as long as there is pain or suffering in the 
world. They are not content to find heaven as a 
place of rest, but know, as you and I do, that 
heaven is a condition, not a place. So many times, 
papa, at the home, I walk into the study where you 
are, and sit down in the little chair mamma used 
to sit in when she was waiting for you to get 
through some writing and talk to her, you remem- 
ber, and I come there and sit down and look at you 
and wonder why you cannot see me when I see 
you so plainly. 

Whenever you put flowers on the table I feel so 
happy, and am glad to know you remember how I 

13 



178 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

loved them. I always did love them. I love the 
lilies, but we don't have those so often. And yon 
remember the spotted lilies that grow wild, that 
is, not wild, but grow naturally in big clusters. I 
like those, but I don't like to touch them, for the 
pollen falls off on your fingers. Then there's an- 
other flower, at home, that I love ; it 's that tall old- 
fashioned pink one, not very fragrant, but pretty. 
I think it is wild phlox. There is red, now, begin- 
ning to come on the vines that run over the wall, 
and it looks beautiful. 

I want to tell you so many things about what I 
do over here. 

Do you remember hearing an East Indian Ma- 
hatma, or something of that rank, speak! He had 
a yellow silk turban or scarf around his head, 
Swami Abhedananda. Didn't he go to the spirit? 
(No.) Well, it's Vivekananda. I saw him, and 
talked with him. They have such lofty ideas of 
the Infinite, I love to talk to them. And then 
Madame Blavatsky. I have seen her; and, papa, 
she is, at one time, so ]ofty, and at another, so 
coarse, that one can hardly understand the two 
extremes of her nature. She seemed to embrace 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 179 

all conditions; but she is busy; activity is the ex- 
pression of her soul. She talked and taught re- 
pose, but she could not express it. She was one 
volcano in eruption, the most of the time. I am 
describing her in the Earth life. [Have you met 
her in the spirit life!] Yes. She is not here, to- 
day, but she asked me to give you her kindest re- 
gards, and tell you that she never forgot your 
kindness to her, which she never adequately ex- 
pressed her appreciation of, while she was in the 
body,* Mamma laughs, and with a funny little 
smile, says, 'I had all I wanted of her. She was 
more than enough for one household to take care 
of, and I thought she never would go. She liked 
our home so much. I was glad when I saw the last 
of her, and yet she was fascinating in the extreme, 
at times. She was a wonderful medium, and was 
controlled to do a great work, and she had to do it 
in the way her spirit could be used. ' 

I have said, father, about all I ought to say, to- 
day, just let me add my love to Eugene and Cora, 
and the children, to Mrs. Sjoegren and her daugh- 

* Mme. Blavalsky made me a long visit in Ithaca, in the 
Autumn of 1875, and began the writing of Isis Unveiled' while 
she was with me. 



180 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

ter, and a thousand embraces to Miss Lilian, and 
my heart's devotion to you. Good bye. 

Paulie. 
The Control: I want to tell you that Joseph 
and Emil send their love, and are very happy 
indeed over Mr. Tennyson's message; and Joseph 
says that your friend, Mr. Ernst Perabo has a 
mother in the spirit land who frequently stands 
by his side, and yearns over him with the tender- 
ness and love that is most beautiful to see. 

25 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

Happy are we, to-day, dear, to speak to you of 
our presence, and of our interest in the city where 
you are staying, and in all the things and places 
you are seeing. 

What a beautiful time you will have when you 
get home and apart from this active expression, to 
live again these days, and recall the sweetness of 
the hours we have spent in this room.* 

We were all with you, this morning. Paulie and 
Emil walked with Miss Whiting on the pier, and 

* The seances were held in my rooms in 'The Brunswick.' 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 181 

Joseph and I sat beside you; and all our friends 
were near, looking at the beauty of the sky and 
sea, and thinking what a wonderful sabbath it all 
was for tired eyes and wearied hands. 

The one great difference between the enjoyment 
of life in the Earth's sphere and the spirit realm, 
is, that spirits take time to enjoy everything When 
once they are awakened to the sense of beauty; 
in the Earth's sphere, demands for the physical 
needs cannot be sufficiently dismissed for a tem- 
porary enjoyment of higher things. 

Mr. Brooks is here, and I will step aside for him 
now. 

Cabbie. 

PHILLIPS BBOQKS. 

Good afternoon, my dear friend. When this mat- 
ter of Spiritualism was brought to my attention, 
before I left the body, I thought it very unimpor- 
tant. I thought it might be true, or might not, 
that men should connect directly with God as a 
Father, and through that understanding of divine 
relationship, come into better relations with men 
and women about them. 



182 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I had not the slightest doubt of the immortality 
of the soul. God, I thought, was too good, too 
beneficent, to create a race and then snuff them 
out. 

I had an idea that it might be perfectly true 
that my sainted mother, whom I adored above all 
human beings, could see me at times ; but that she 
could even want to leave that exalted sphere to 
which she had been promoted through death, I 
never once understood or believed. If I analyzed 
the matter at all, it was that her faith in God left 
me in his care until I was called home, and my 
faith in God should let me stand free and fearless, 
knowing that she rested in his heaven, and among 
his saints. 

That sounds very fine as an argument ; but, to- 
day, it looks stupid enough to me. And I wonder 
at my own blindness. You must understand that 
God to me was a personal entity with greater love 
than we could understand. And when my intel- 
lect began to question, I fell down on my knees and 
prayed for greater faith. 

I am not unhappy to find that many of my ideas 
were too childish for the understanding of the 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 183 

broader conception of the Infinite power. And 
that leads me to question whether the world is 
ready for the whole and complete revelation. 

Many truths I have to tell you, but you cannot 
hear them now.* 

But of this I am assured : the comfort, the com 
panionship, the sweet solace of the communion be 
tween dead and living, are needed in every church, 
in every family, and in every aching heart. 

Perhaps the only way to help the world to un 
derstand these larger problems of Infinity and 
spiritual life, is to teach them through their pain. 

I am sure that many times my best utterances 
were poured through my lips by spirits who were 
wise and good. I often felt, when I began to speak, 
a force so strong that it poured itself through me 
in an irresistible tide; but I thought it was God, 
that it was the answer to my prayer to have my 
open mouth filled with blessed words. And it was 
God, too, dear friend, working in his own un- 
changeable way, and answering prayers through 
men and women who understand the law. 

* So he quoted John XVI. 12, 



184 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I frequently sit with you, in the evening, when 
you are talking with my friend, Miss Whiting. 
For a long time, almost since I first came over 
here, I have been able to draw very close to her; 
and she has helped me many times in an expres- 
sion. 

Perhaps no one in your Band enjoys having 
you two people together so much as I. I know the 
close relationship existing between you and the 
Brownings, and also between her and them ; but I 
am as keenly alive to the good it is for you both 
as are the Brownings. My tender regards to her 
and tell her I have frequently \ talked with Dr. 
Donald* since he came over here, and he expresses 
the kindest appreciation of her friendship. 

She seems to grow rather weary of the church 
service, and sometimes chides herself for it; but 
let me assure her it is growth, not weariness, pro- 
gression, not retrogression, and freedom which 
she most desires. 

When you consider that it is I, the friend and 
adviser, who speak these words to her, you may 



* Rev. Dr. Elijah Winchester Donald, successor to Dr. 
Brooks, as rector of Trinity Church, Boston; died 1904. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 185 

smile and say that / have been growing too, which 
is trne. 

I think I will say only one more word to you, 
and that is, how much I appreciate your kindness 
to me, and the honor you do me, to include me in 
your loved Band. 

I know that you and I have very much in com- 
mon, in the moral sphere, however much our re- 
ligious ideas might have clashed. Our purposes 
were plain, and our expressions fearless on some 
of the great problems of the day, notably the An- 
ti-Slavery question, the accumulation of great 
wealth, and the disastrous conditions attending 
the efforts to spend it. I will say good bye, to- 
day, and come again. 

Phillips Bkooks. 

EMIL CORSON. 

This is only a short one, to-day, father, because 
we know your hand is tired, and we want you to 
feel good for to-morrow. 

I love this life here in this city. There 's so much 
going on. We get a touch of some of the modern 



186 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

ways of getting about and seeing different places 
and people. I loved the water, this morning,* I'd 
like to be right out on it some time. 

What a variety of scenery there is here. We 
took a walk with Mr. Longfellow the other day 
while you were lying down, and he showed us 
Bunker Hill, and an old burying ground that you 
haven't seen, I think it is called Copp's Hill,** 
looking out to the sea, and the State House. 

It's very busy at Ithaca now; and some of your 
friends have already asked for you; but you'll go 
home soon enough, and find everything in order, 
and the lovely peaceful atmosphere everywhere. 
There 's the smell of grapes in the air, and the lit- 
tle round red apples. I like the fruiting season; 
and the harvest time is come. I go there every day 
and look about, and fancy I see you with your over- 
coat and gloves on, and your cap, walking around 



* I went with Miss Whiting, this morning, to the sea shore, 
and spent some time on the pier running out into the sea, and 
saw an ocean steamer coming in from England. 

** A hill in the northeast part of Boston, an old burial 
ground, reverentially preserved, occupied, in the Revolutionary 
War by a British fort, from which hot shot were thrown into 
Charlestown, at the battle of Bunker Hill, setting the town on 
Are. It commands a fine view of the sea. 



EMIL CORSON 187 

the place for a little constitutional. Everything 
will look so good after you've been away. 

And there has been a good lot of work done in 
the house since you have been gone, everything 
put in spick and span order. 

[How do you know such expressions?] 

Oh, we pick them up from different people, 
sometimes in the Earth life, and sometimes in the 
spirit. 

Language grows with us much the same as it 
does with you. The need of a word creates it. 

I was going to tell you a little more about the 
house. You know every little while you have to 
have some trimming of the trees done, and that 
makes a little firewood. I love that kind of a fire, 
when the flames dance up and down the wall, and 
the odors of the forest are released by the heat. 

I do not wonder that the Indians dance before 
their camp fires. 

Did you ever think what we do over here, about 
fires, I was going to say. Fires play so large a 
part in the Earth life of men that it seems as if 
some people find it hard to grow away from the 
desire for the beauty and comfort of fire. And I 



188 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

have seen people enjoying it over here. They 
create it through a chemical action, and it looks 
exactly like the fire people use for heat and cook- 
ing. They do not need it, they only want it. Mr. 
Hawthorne loves an open fire, and he says, I want 
no boxed-up flame for me. I want to see, and 
smell, and hear, as well as feel; and Mr. Longfel- 
low says, only one more to add to those, and that 
is, taste; and if he lets his fire smoke a little he 
can add taste to the equipment.* It's a bit of their 
fun. 

Now, father dear, I think I'll go, and before you 
return to Ithaca, I'll come with another message; 
for I want to tell you how I love the drives,** and 
the circles, at home, and the association with you, 
my revered father. Good night. 

Emil. 



* Here it appears that spirits enjoy the memory of even 
physical comforts in the Earth life, though there is no need 
of them in the Spirit life. 

** The Band accompanies me in my occasional drives, at 
home, through the fine scenery around Ithaca. By 'circles' 
toe means my private seances. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 189 

26 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control: ' Never the time and the place 
and the loved one all together/* your wife says, 
but this is the time and the place, and the loved 
ones all together. 

Dear, dear husband, the joy is mine to greet 
you, to-day ; and I want to send a message to dear 
Lilian, and tell her how much we love her for her 
devotion to you ; and tell her she must not grieve 
when things do not come as she plans for you. 

Emil was with you, this morning, and he wishes 
me to tell you that he and Mr. Longfellow were at 
the old burying ground the other day, because 
they were going over the road made famous by 
the lines of Mr. Longfellow, called 'Paul Revere '« 
Ride'. They started from the Old North church, 
and went on and out to Lexington. But they were 
not weary, found no locked gates, and had to pay 
no Peter's pence to get into the temple.** 



* The two first verses of Browning's poem in the volume en- 
titled 'Jocoseria.' The first verse serves as the title to the 
poem. 

** Alluding to experiences which Miss Whiting and I had 
when we went to visit Copp's Hill. 



190 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I have been to see our son since yesterday ; and 
it is so good to find the cordial welcome and a new 
enthusiasm for our communications. It is like a 
new bit of life poured into his existence. 

So many men live on and on in the present with- 
out any knowledge at all of the after life, except 
that vague and dreamy belief in a heaven pre- 
pared for saints. How funny it is that so many 
people believe that only good folks go to heaven; 
and yet go right on sinning, living selfish lives and 
having no conception of what the truth is. How 
can one explain it except that they believe nothing 
at all, and gamble with eternity just as they do 
with life. 

It is such a pleasure to me, dear, to have the 
children speak to you in such confidence of their 
love and their life here. It is ideal. Had they 
stayed with you, it would have been my desire to 
have this same blessed comradeship grow up be- 
tween you all as now exists and always will exist. 

But one can never tell what effect the material 
life in a physical body may have on the spirit ; and 
I am glad now that our dear children so early be- 
gan the real and spiritual expression. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 191 

I think I am helped by these communications 
equally with you. 

Mr. Myers promised to speak with you, to-day, 
and he is here, looking very strong and noble, and 
very ready to give you any knowledge he has 
which may help you; and he wishes me to say to 
you that he has pleasure in coming as well as you 
in having him come. 

Love to you, dear. 

Cakrie. 

F. W. H. MYERS. 

I am glad to come to you, my friend. 

I have often said, and still repeat, there is no 
subject in the world so interesting, so fascinating 
to me, as the subject of spirit identity. After I 
began to be interested in it seriously, and after 
the English society was formed, I needed no other 
recreation, and found nothing of vital importance 
outside of it for me. 

I am still, so to speak, connected with the So- 
ciety, and whenever I have opportunity I make ef- 
fort to express something clear to the men who are 
interested with me. 



192 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Sir Oliver Lodge has done a great work, and I 
am pleased with it; but none of them have taken 
the simple, rational, natural relationship as you 
have done ; and I believe that is the key to the won- 
derful messages that are given you. You take 
everything and weigh your evidence afterward, 
and it is not often that you have to discard any- 
thing as mistaken identity or foolish talk. Every 
thing you have received fits together like a wonder- 
ful mosaic of spiritual reality. 

I suppose if I had stayed longer I would have 
written more. The trouble is not, to write enough, 
but, not to write too much. N 

I was never handicapped by what other people 
thought. If I discovered something which they 
had not known, it gave me no trouble at all, and I 
never doubted my own experiences because they 
did. I rather felt a sense of pity that they could 
not see, or could not have the opportunity to see, 
what I saw. 

One of the remarkable things in this whole work, 
to me, has been the very prodigal way in which 
the spirits have dispensed their gifts without re- 
gard to education or birth, or financial standing; 



F. W. H. MYERS 193 

and a social equipment hindered rather than 
helped the growth of the gift of clairvoyance or 
clairaudience, or trance, or psychometry. The 
power came wherever and whenever there was 
sufficient receptivity to make it felt and known. 

Everything is in the hands of the people who 
are alive in the world. There is no particular cun- 
ning about it. And whenever anyone seeks earn- 
estly for some [spiritual] expression, it is never 
withheld. 

I was not surprised in that matter, for I had al- 
ways believed that it was possible to tap the res- 
ervoir of spiritual knowledge and get direct in- 
formation, not only about spiritual conditions, but 
physical. 

I Lave little patience with that group of men 
who explain everything by telepathy, and can 
give one no evidence whatever of how telepathy 
works, or how the law may be applied. 

You are probably familiar with Thomson Jay 
Hudson's theories, his universal telepathy, and 

14 



194 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

telepathy a trois* He had some of the conceit 
taken out of him when he came over here, for all 
his experiments failed. Telepathy has never been 
demonstrated as being a power apart from the 
spirit possibility; far more likely it is that spirit 
messengers act as go-betweens, and deliver the 
message sent from one person to another. And in 
cases where a message is telepathied in English 
and received in Greek, how can that be done by 
any other means than by the spirit operator im- 
pressing on the receiver the Greek expression for 
the given English message. 

I believe it perfectly possible for me to give you 
a message, this afternoon, and an hour later, un- 
der like conditions, in another channel, give the 
same message to some one in England. And I be- 
lieve if this message is transmitted simultaneous- 



* "A message transmitted from A to B, by any means of 
communicating human intelligence, can be transmitted, con- 
ditions being equal, from B to C by the same means. Besides, 
it has been demonstrated, again and again, by experimental 
telepathy, that telepathy by three, or as the French call it, 
'telepathie a trois,' is not only a possible, but a very common 
phenomenon." 

The Evolution of the Soul. By Thomson Jay Hudson. Chi- 
cago: 1904, P. 169. 



F. W. H. MYERS 195 

ly in both places it must be given in one place by 
some one cooperating with me for that purpose. 

The cross-reference is still agitating the minds 
of those who desire to put evidence of spirit iden- 
tity into expression such as would be used in log- 
arithms or chemical quantities. Only in one way 
can this be done perfectly and without failure, and 
that is, to have the different media of equal spirit- 
ual vibration, or, in other words, to have instru- 
ments that are keyed to the same pitch. 

There has been no care taken of the mediums; 
and until there is, scientific demonstrations are 
very nearly useless. But the heart to heart evi- 
dence may go on unremittingly and unceasingly. 

I did not mean to talk so long on this particular 
theme. There are so many other forms of mani- 
festation from the spirit. I was interested in 
them : the dreams, the haunted houses, the physi- 
cal expression through the voice, the cabinet 
forms, and all those multiplied phenomena which 
make up the list that you and I are familiar with. 

All of these expressions are true in instances. 
And because some one has played fast and loose 



196 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

with the credulity of dupes, there is no reason for 
denying the truth when it is given. 

Infinite is the variety of the flora of the world, 
and infinite is the variety of spirit expression. 

There was a time when the question of prophecy 
was tabooed by serious minds ; but no one who has 
had many seances with psychics of good repute, 
has failed to note the many, many foretellings of 
future events which were as clearly seen as if 
they had been a part of the past. 

This is one of the phases which men will have 
to reckon with, before very long. A chance 
prophecy which falls in with the manner of living, 
and would be a natural sequence of present condi- 
tions, I will not consider ; but the definite picturing 
of future events, with color, and sound, and peo- 
ple, and season of the year, or atmosphere of the 
hour, is too direct and definite to be ignored. 

Eeally, when one comes to study this great ex- 
pression, it is so stupendous as to be almost over- 
whelming; and I sometimes think that it will be 
the mass of individual experiences brought into 
place where men may hear and know, that will 
give the world the best understanding of the truth. 



F. W. H. MYERS 197 

I am always glad to come to you personally, 
aside from your perfect confidence in our capacity 
to speak. There is a sense of companionship be- 
cause of your spiritual aspirations. Your eyes 
are not always glued to the expression; but your 
mind and spirit respond. You meet us more than 
half-way. And when I am in your home, I do not 
feel that I have come into a denser atmosphere, 
but rather that it is clear and pellucid and beauti- 
ful. 

So many men with whom I spent hours of in- 
vestigation of these subjects, had absolutely noth- 
ing in them except a common interest in facts. 
How bare, how cold, how materialistic! What 
shall we do with the facts when we have them? 
Sit on them until they explode? make record on 
record of them, until the files are so voluminous 
that no ordinary man would attempt to wade 
through them? No. They must serve their pur- 
pose in the world, and lift mankind to an apprecia- 
tion of the spiritual life, or the power will be trans- 
ferred to a centre where it can be of use. It is the 
religious and humanitarian, the ethical and spirit- 
ual influence which must be understood now ; and 



198 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

I am heart and soul with those who desire to give 
the world the blessed assurance of life after death, 
and a comfort and inspiration which that assur- 
ance alone can give. 

I would have all the songs the songs of joy, all 
the prayers the prayers of understanding, all the 
deeds the deeds of wisdom, and all the lives made 
holy and sweet. 

I think I must go now; I may be able to speak 
once more before you leave. And I have a plan 
to write you a letter if I am able, once in a while, 
through the hand of the medium^ to give you the 
assurance of my continued cordial relations, as 
one of your Band of faithful friends. 

Fkedekic Meyees. 

27 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 
CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

Greeting to you, my dear. It makes the veil be- 
tween us seem very light and filmy when I can so 
easily step through it and speak my message to 
you. 

Our darling children are with me, and it is the 
rarest treat of their lives to be able to come to you 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 199 

in this familiar fashion from day to day. We 
thought we had the very easiest and best condi 
tions at the home ; but this is still better, because 
the brain through which the messages are sent, is 
more capable, if I may be allowed to use that term, 
in that connection. 

Mr. Myers was exceedingly pleased with the re- 
sult of his effort, yesterday. He says that the 
spirits cannot always be sure of just how clear the 
message has been as they have given it; but after 
they go away and look back on the written page, 
or the remembered word in the mind of their 
friend, they are better able to form an adequate 
conception of what they have accomplished. 

He told me, this morning, that he would be hap- 
py and confident of the future of the spiritual 
truth if he could be assured of a dozen men like 
you to receive the messages; and I was compli- 
mented and pleased, myself ; for I know your ver- 
acity, your steadfastness and your fearlessness 
better, perhaps, than any one else in the world. 

I have wanted to speak to you about the familiar 
relations between friends over here. It was quite 
a surprise to me when it was first suggested to 



200 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

me, that all families did not remain united in the 
spirit spheres. You know, with my understanding 
and love of family ties, that was a heathenish con- 
ception ; but I have grown to understand that the 
only bonds that hold people together, in the spirit- 
ual realm, are the bonds of soul. Some loves are 
too weak to hold over into this life ; and some fam- 
ily connections seem only to exist for progress or 
special adaptation for understanding of problems 
or something of that sort. It pleases me, now that 
I know this, to tell you that my people and your 
people are very near and dear to each other and 
to us. Your mother is as much my mother as she 
is yours ; and I love her just as fondly as I do my 
own mother. And our children have no desire to 
form any ties of deep love outside the family cir- 
cle as yet, and when they do, I know their loves 
will be woven into the fabric of our lives. 

Miss Bennett wishes to speak to you, so I will 
let her come now. 

Carrie. 
FEANCES E. BENNETT. 

Good afternoon, professor. Perhaps you have 
thought that I had enough of school life when I 



FRANCES E. BENNETT 201 

was in the body. It is true I was sometimes weary 
of teaching; but there was really nothing in life 
that held me so completely and gave me so much 
happiness in return. 

I often have your daughter, Pauline, with me in 
my interesting classes; and instead of teaching 
deportment, good manners, and the like, we lay 
large stress on expression. Whatever the study, 
whether music or art, elocution or mathematics, 
the individual expression is the matter of most 
moment. 

Suppose one were able to play a sonata ; the in- 
dividual expression would, to my mind, mean the 
feeling, the depth of soul touch which could be 
expressed to other souls. To take a more familiar 
subject, your own vocal expressions of poems or 
plays, or even stories, is so largely a part of your- 
self that no one else could ever express in the same 
way. 

I understood Dante better after hearing you 
read. (The Control : She hesitates a moment, puts 
her hand to her head, and thinks, and then says) : 
it's the Merchant of Venice, Shylock, I was trying 
to recall. 



202 SPIRIT MESS A A GES 

I have several times tried to speak at the home 
circle about some of the things of the past; but I 
am always troubled, in a degree, by the last ill- 
ness, you well remember, long and tedious. After 
all, I am not sure that you care to have me return 
to the past, but would rather I give you a thought 
of my present life, and my effort in this particu- 
lar connection of manifestation from the Spirit 
land. 

I was glad to be through with the weariness, and 
so happy to find a life with possibilities ; and over 
and over again, in the first months of my life here, 
I recalled many things which you had said that 
helped me trace my way. 

You were never much of a proselyter; but one 
could not talk to you long without understanding 
your conception of God, and life, and the universe. 

If I should tell you I am happy, I know it would 
give pleasure; and I am happy, but I still have 
many things to work for, and see the life open up 
to me, as one of diligence and study, and activity. 
But the blessed thing about it all, is, that the eter- 
nal problems of meeting indebtedness, one is re- 
leased from. There is a freedom from the mater- 



FRANCES E. BENNETT 203 

ial demands which makes life most wonderful and 
sincere. 

Men and women waste themselves playing parts 
for a pittance. All acting is not before the foot- 
lights, nor is all simple honest life off the stage. I 
sometimes wonder where the whirl is going to 
end. Fad and fancy, fashion and foolishness, 
make stark-mad fools of what might otherwise be 
strong and beautiful men and women. 

I never feel like grieving over death, as I used 
to, for I know that there is a better chance for the 
soul over here. 

I haven *t much I want to say, except to give my 
love to Tilly. Tell her I often see her about her 
duties, and I am glad that she is growing so fast 
in her spiritual unfoldment, and I want to help 
her when I can. I promised to say a word to her 
from her husband, who passed away so long ago. 
He sends his greetings and his love to her and tells 
her and the child to go on in the same faithful way, 
and rest in the knowledge of his love for them. 

Good bye, my friend. 

Miss Bennett. 



204 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

PAULINE HENRIETTE COKSON. 

To say that I am happy doesn't express much. 

I want to tell you, papa dear, about some won- 
derful music I've heard over here. I went, the 
other day, where there was a great company of 
musicians. They were all playing on instruments 
different from any which I had ever seen before. 
Some were very large, with strings across them, 
like wonderful violins; and some were long like 
reedy flutes; and these people played upon them 
without any particular effort. There were pianos, 
too, and voices that blended with the whole. They 
were representing sounds that we have in this life. 
Sometimes the music would ripple and flow like a 
little stream through a sylvan forest, and now and 
then a sound like a bird in the wood, and a boy 
whistling as he walked beside the stream. Then a 
little crooning song like the rustle of corn leaves 
in the summer wind. And all at once there would 
come a sound like a storm approaching, and a 
hush like the stillness before the thunder breaks, 
and then all the vividness of lightning flash,and 
pouring rain, and wind-lashed trees, and far off, 
the lonely bleats of frightened sheep on the moun- 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 205 

tain side. And soon these rough storm sounds 
died away, and the sun came out, and the birds 
began to sing, and the pine trees to whisper, and 
all the air was filled with the sounds of happy 
children. All this was done by men with musical 
instruments, and men and women, with voices 
trained through love of harmony, to express these 
things. 

I think I would rather go again to something 
like that than to see the most wonderful represen- 
tation of the passion of Christ (the passion play, 
I mean), that was ever produced. That's a minor 
strain, a note of sorrow, perpetuated eternally; 
and even Christ himself, I fancy, would not care 
to have the world dwell in that low key. 

I think you and I have the same tastes and de- 
sires, don't you? and it pleases me to think you 
have imparted to me something of yourself. 

It's only a week before you will be back in the 
home, and I shall be sitting there beside you, keep- 
ing you company, although you may not know it. 

Mr. and Mrs. Browning are going to try to speak 
to you, tomorrow. They want a good long time. 



206 SPIRIT MESS A AGES 

Mr. Whitman asked me to tell you how glad he 
is that you are happy in his attention to the boys, 
and the boys say that they would fight for him 
with the same ardor that they would fight for you. 
[The Control • That's only a term they use.] They 
call him Uncle Walt. He prefers Walt. They be- 
gan calling him Uncle Whitman, but he likes the 
other name better. 

You would laugh to see them all lying down on a 
beautiful grassy bed, just as real to them as any 
grass land you ever saw, and talking away about 
the Universe, and beyond the spaces, and the won- 
derful story of the spirit of God in men and trees. 

Mr. Whitman is really one of the most deeply 
religious men, in the best sense of the word, I ever 
knew. He hates hypocrisy, abhors cant, and, 
above all things, loves an honest man. 

Do you remember Mrs. Andrews and some In- 
dian guides she had? (Yes.) She says Honto 
took care of me. She also says you helped her a 
good deal, and she always wanted to thank you* 

Good night, papa. 

* Mrs. Andrews was a well-known materializing medium, at 
a place called 'The Cascade,' on Owasco Lake. I attended her 
seances after my daughter passed away in 1874. Honto told 
me she strengthened my papoose, as she called her, with her 
magnetism, when she came over. Honto would come out of 
the cabinet and talk to the circle in a high-pitched voice. She 
was a wonder of materialization. 



ELIZABETH B. BROWNING 207 

28 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control: Mrs. Browning steps for- 
ward to say a few words because Mr. Browning 
wishes her to have the first place. 

Oh, rare and beautiful day that gives us an op- 
portunity to communicate with you, our treasured 
friend. There is no trace of sadness in our hearts, 
to-day. Life is like a garden of roses, and every 
step we take, the sweet breath is wafted to our 
nostrils, and our eyes are filled with the beauty. 

How lovely it is to say, again and again, to you 
and to ourselves, this is God's completeness, the 
additional expression of his love. Somewhere in 
the heart of the Universe, there must be a foun- 
tain of love, and ever and anon it ripples and flows 
into the hearts of men and women, making them 
strong and good and lovely. 

Perhaps it is the poetical strain in me which 
makes me love to think of God as the expression 
of love, and to feel that his arms are ever around 
the world, keeping it in its orbit. 

Many, many times since your wife has come 
over here, and especially since she has been able, 



208 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

at these sittings, to send a definite letter to her 
son, I have felt the mother heart in me yearn to do 
as much for my boy. I know how he reveres my 
memory; but I would love to have that personal 
talk which is so satisfactory to those who gain 
such advantage. 

I do not remember whether I have spoken to 
you of my joy when my darling came to me. I had 
waited so long and had tried to be patient until the 
door should open into this life ; but when the day 
really dawned, the intensity of my feeling brought 
silence and sweet tears. 

My father always believed in me, but had an al- 
most overpowering care. And when I assumed 
my right of perfect health, and poise in the spirit 
realm, it was quite surprising to see him still lin- 
ger by my side as if to protect me; but we soon 
understood each other, and I was allowed the free- 
dom which I always yearned for. And when Rob- 
ert, my husband, was working and expressing, in 
his own powerful way, I was always by his side, 
and, I hope, an inspiration and a strength to him. 
I was with him in the spirit when you met him in 
the body, and it was beautiful to see the way you 



ELIZABETH B. BROWNING 209 

two men understood each other. That is why we 
are so close to you. 

There must be something in the soul to attract 
and hold, else there is no union, no friendship, 
that is lasting or sure. And if you had spoken 
less enthusiastically of his work, or of mine, there 
would still have been a bond between you, for the 
soul does not always need the outward expression 
to know its own or demand the continued expres- 
sion to hold its own. 

What shall I say to you that will make you as- 
sured of our happiness in your companionship? 
Sometimes when I see all the strong people about 
you, strong thinkers like Dr. Brooks, and Mr. 
Myers, wonderful teachers and sturdy yeomen of 
the poetic expression, like Whitman, I feel that 
my feeble songs are like the twitter of a bird in 
the nest, compared to the lark's burst of melody, 
at the rising of the sun. 

No one knows so well as the one who has at- 
tempted to do something, how imperfectly that 
something has been done. 

Your Quaker poet has beautifully expressed it 
in the lines, 

15 



210 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

1 ' Let the thick curtain fall, 
I better know than all, 
How little I have gained, 
How vast the nnattained. ' ' 

I think I have quoted it correctly, and it is so 
expressive. 

Some bombastic singers, with conceit growing 
out of their finger tips, could hardly sing that song. 
But I believe that in the heart of every truthful 
poet, the yearning so exceeds the expression that 
there is often a pain akin to despair, resting there. 
But where there are two who hold each other's 
hands, through hours of doubt, and whisper 
through the darkness the story of sweet confi- 
dence, there are fewer of these strains of sadness 
than when one is alone, as was Mr. Whitman. 

Some of the ideals which we both had for the 
world, we strive to make real, to-day. Eobert puts 
his hand on yours, and I withdraw that he may 
give you his message. 

Elizabeth B. Browning. 

So I am here again, my friend, filled with an 
energy that comes from an understanding com- 
panionship. Wherever I go in the world, I find 



ROBERT BROWNING 211 

weary workers, back bent with the burden of 
Earth's cares, and I long to sing a song of victory, 
and see the eyes look np, and the bnrden roll 
away. The pain of the world, the misunderstand- 
ing, the littlenesses of great men, in great places, 
and the greatness of little men, in small places, 
has always been a source of wonder and distress 
to me. I longed to have power to right the world, 
put the crowns on the heads where crowns best 
belonged, and snatch sceptres from unworthy 
hands. 

You know me so well, that you will appreciate 
my effort to come through this city of doubt about 
the righteousness of such conditions, and reach at 
last the place of peace where I could sing forever 
my trust and confidence in the ultimate good. 

I might speak to you for hours, and you would 
understand every word I said of my indignation 
at wrong, my love of the good, and my desire to 
bring the worthy to the light. But before I left 
the body, I had learned a few of the lessons of 
life ; and now in the land of spirits, I know I was 
right in trusting that all wrongs would be righted, 
and weaknesses made strong, if not in this world, 
then in some other. 



212 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Poets are reformers. Not all the preaching is 
done under the shadow of the cassock and the sur- 
plice. The sermons that speak themselves out of 
the mouths of those who listen for the voice of 
Truth, are the sermons that reach the souls in 
need. Truth must ever be our mistress. The 
clarion call to duty is blown at her behest, and no 
other note can reach the inmost ear, or catch the 
attention of the soul that waits. 

America haunts me. It is a phantom unwieldly, 
ever pressing itself in upon my consciousness, so 
wonderful, so beautiful, so expansive and grand, 
and yet the playground of the politician who sees 
its mightiness but to desire the strength of its 
mightiness that he may play king. 

My heart is with England ; its great men, its rul- 
ers, its thinkers, are always my friends in thought, 
and I watch with eager interest whatever comes to 
the Kingdom which I loved. I cannot forget nor 
do I wish to, the scenes of my earthly life, the 
events which called forth the best in me. I some- 
times think that old age ripens us until we see the 
green fruit like something foreign; we are so far 
apart through changes which sun and storm have 



ROBERT BROWNING 213 

brought to us. But I would not have it otherwise. 
The yellow grain that nods and sighs beneath the 
Autumn sun, can scarce remember earlier days. 

Shall I tell you of some of the people who have 
interested me in their activities in the world? 
Gladstone, who clung to life and fought for the 
principles which he believed were best, has always 
been an object of my deepest interest ; so different 
from Salisbury, as you and I know. And Glad- 
stone in his life, to-day, studying, inquiring, mak- 
ing effort to bring men to an understanding of 
the needs of his people, is as active an influence 
in the affairs of the nation as if he sat in his castle 
and conferred with his associates. He could not 
live forever, and some of his influence died with 
him; but death failed to quench that fire which 
burned ever brightly for the good of his nation. 

He has expressed the greatest interest in these 
themes (spiritual) ; he was far-seeing, possessed 
the power of the eagle, could fly to great heights, 
see his prey, and pounce upon it with the deftness 
of the hawk. But that superior power by which he 
rose, that eagle eye which saw his prey, saw also 
the unlimited capacities of growth, and yearned to 



214 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

know something of the larger expression of life. 
It is no unusual thing to see him in the House of 
Commons, to-day, working as vigilantly as if his 
spirit still had the armor of flesh, and directing 
his forces as only a great prime minister may. 

On one occasion he came to your home with us 
and expressed deep interest in the philosophy of 
spirit return; and tomorrow, if I may, I will let 
him speak to you. We have thought that, per- 
haps, you would like to have an opportunity to 
speak with him, and to ask us some questions be- 
fore you return to Ithaca ; and if that is true, any 
time after to-day you may ask them. 

I think I will withdraw now. Good bye. 

Robert Browning. 

The Control : Mr. Goldwin Smith has a message 
for you. He is a little slow in coming. Suddenly 
he moves forward, looks intently at you, and 
says : 

Yes, yes, indeed I do want to speak to you. 

My whole interest in life is to be of service. I 
say this with no particular pride, but because it 
is perfectly true that I can comprehend no possi- 
ble use for wealth or education, or accumulated 



GOLD WIN SMITH 2 1 5 

books, or treasures of art, except to be of use for 
the growing world. 

I was so intensely interested in the affairs of 
the material world, that I never thought deeply of 
the spiritualistic problem; but whatever I have 
found so far that makes me able to continue my 
work, and interest among men, I am deeply grate- 
ful for. 

I know very well how my name is being ap- 
plauded to-day; but it has little effect on me. I 
would rather men would save their energies to 
devote them to a better purpose than paying eulo- 
gies to a dead man, because he left his fortune for 
the support of their alma mater. I am glad I had 
sense enough to leave some freedom about my 
gifts. I too often saw Universities so tied up with 
their bequests that they became a hindrance, and 
I long ago decided that I would leave no prints 
of dead men's fingers on my will. I am a friend 
to education, now and always. 

I was quite conscious of the honor you did me 
to be present at the services* as representative of 



* His funeral services, at which I represented the Faculty 
of Cornell University. 



2 1 6 SPIRIT MESS A GES 

the Faculty; and President Schurman represent- 
ed the University. Am I right? (Yes.) 

The surprise to me was greater than I can ex- 
press when I found that I could see my assem- 
bled friends, and hear their words of sorrow, and 
appreciation of me. I was at the funeral; where 
else would I be? An event of so much importance 
would take me from a sick bed any time. But 
while in the body, an event of so much equal in- 
terest to any one near or dear to me, would have 
taken me from a sick bed, whatever the result. 

I find that many men never lose consciousness 
when they apparently die. Many N of them hear the 
expressions of grief over their dead bodies, and 
attend their own funerals, and I certainly attend- 
ed mine, and was both surprised and pleased. Af- 
terward I found it very easy to see my friends still 
in the body, and to hear them speak. But the pain 
came when I got no response to my repeated ques- 
tionings, and my efforts at recognition. My first 
recognition was here in this room that day when 
I gave you the message.* It was from that hour 



* At the seance on the 9th of Sept. the first of the series. 



GOLD WIN SMITH 2 1 7 

that I became deeply interested in the philosophy 
as a philosophy; and I hope I may often come to 
you as long as yon live. [I shall be delighted. Mrs. 
Corson was mnch attached to you, and Pauline 
loved you very much.] Pauline knows me now, 
and is a most excellent friend, and gives me much 
information. Good bye for this time. 

Gtoldwin Smith. 

Dear Carrie, can you give me a few words be- 
fore the sitting closes 1 

Yes, dear, of course I can give you a word. Mr. 
Smith is the same strong, beautiful, independent 
man we all loved. He does what he believes is 
right, in a modest way, and the magnificence of 
his gifts might well excuse him if he were a little 
dictatorial, but he is not. Dear, we are all so 
happy. There seems no separation for us now. 
We have all been at home, and everything is all 
right there. 

If anything could have made you dearer to me 
than you were, it would have been this visit which 
you have made to the city which I love for its 
blessed associations of the past, and which I shall 
always love now even more than before. 



218 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Pauline sends her love, and she says, please ex- 
press her love to Lilian. We were with you, to- 
day, and it was beautiful.* We were very glad 
that we were not cremated. We love the old place 
best where our bodies are now. 

In many instances, cremation is better for the 
living, and in many instances, for those who go to 
the spirit; for they are sometimes sooner releas- 
ed by fire from their attachment to the body. 
There is such an attachment, sometimes, with peo- 
ple who had lived grossly physical and material 
lives.** Now, good night, and good night from 
Pauline, Joseph and Emil. N Carrie. 

* Mount Auburn ; Miss Whiting and I looked into the crem- 
atory which we had not seen on our first visit to Mount Au- 
burn. It appears they were with us there. 

** This fact is expressed in the speech of the Elder Brother, 
on Chastity, in Milton's 'Comus': 

"Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp, oft seen 
in charnel vaults and sepulchres, lingering, and sitting by a 
new-made grave, as loath to leave the body that it loved, and 
linked itself by carnal sensuality, to a degenerate and de- 
graded state." 

'And linked itself means 'and as if it were itself linked.' 

29 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 

The Control : The great men who gather around 
you, smile and bow with much pleasure to Mr. 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 219 

Browning, who is escorting Mr. Gladstone into 
the place where he is to sit while he tells me his 
message. 

I feel highly honored, Mr. Gladstone, to receive 
this visit from you. 

You are no more highly honored by my coming 
than I am to be so cordially received. 

If I had been in a place where time and oppor- 
tunity had been at my disposal, I would have made 
investigations of these psychic phenomena. They 
appealed to me, as they must to every man who 
looks an inch beyond his nose, or thinks out the 
plan of life, a moment beyond the present day. 

My knowledge of men and affairs served me 
very little in my search for the eternal truths. My 
life was so bound up in the affairs of the mun- 
dane sphere, that many of the subjects I fain 
would have studied, had to wait until my spirit 
was free. I used to think there was no greater 
work for a man to be concerned in than the mak- 
ing of right conditions for his fellow men ; high or 
low, socially, I am sure never affected me. I made 
effort to look at the right and the wrong of ques- 
tions presented to me. That is not always easy; 



220 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

and decisions of one year seem sometimes to need 
a revision, the next year. There are always so 
many complications, especially in an old form of 
government where men are wedded to old ideas 
and traditions, and fear the new and progressive 
policy. One has to be more than fearless ; wisdom 
must guide and direct the brain in its decisions. 
I many times would have been glad to leave the 
affairs of my country for a time and bury myself 
in my books and my family, and enjoy the sweet 
exercise of all the individual life, as you know; 
and for all the years of my life of service and toil, 
I had not one absolutely my own. I do not say 
this by way of complaint, but in explanation of 
my almost unforgivable ignorance of these mat- 
ters which are as plain to you as the problems of 
the school room or the associations of ordinary 
life. To me it seems most remarkable that I can 
stand here in your presence and make myself un- 
derstood, when I am perfectly sure that in most 
instances my communication with the world has 
ceased; not my interest nor my influence, but my 
communication. 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 221 

I am exceedingly curious about the methods of 
communicating, just as I was about the telephone 
which seemed to me the most remarkable applica- 
tion of power that I had ever known. Even that 
has been supplanted by such remarkable improve- 
ments and additional powers that I marvel not at 
any thing which, I am told can be accomplished. 

I found, when I came over here, that many of 
the mechanical contrivances for bridging dis- 
tances which I had left behind me, were but very 
bungling substitutes for the transmission of 
thought between people and spheres in the spirit 
life. 

I thought when I first planned to speak to you, 
that I would refer to my interests in England. 
But I find when I come here that the matters of 
Home Rule, of the king's new policies, and var- 
ious items that were of deepest interest to me, 
fade away in the light of this most beautiful ex- 
pression (spiritualism). 

I realize only too well that I was considered as 
one desiring one man power, that I held the fate 
of England in the palm of my hand, on several oc- 
casions ; but I assure you that the significance of 



222 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

my individual expression did not appear to me 
when I was in the midst of the battle ; and if I did 
not always yield to popular opinion, or petty pre- 
judice, it was not that I cared a straw about hav- 
ing my way in the affair except as I was sure that 
my way was the best way. 

Mistakes are made. I made mistakes, but never 
because of personal ambition or individual ag- 
grandizement. 

One grows into a reputation before he realizes 
it; and especially a man who has strong desires 
and individual characteristics, as I fear I had. 

One of the brightest things in my life, to-day, is 
the time I have for association with people of my 
own kind, I mean people of like tastes. My life 
was so largely mixed with lives of men who were 
unlike myself, but whom Fate or Chance, or birth, 
had thrown into the arena with me. It is a most 
beatific state to be in, to find one's self placed 
just where one ought to be. 

Classification, in spirit land, is the result of a 
man's own tastes and desires. How different 
from the monarchy under which I lived! The 
whole spiritual realm seems a great Republic 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 223 

where chance plays no part, and fate makes no 
fools. I wonder if you understand what I mean. 
It would not seem so wonderful to you as to me, 
I who grew with the understanding that some men 
must be masters of the fortunes of other men. 

When I first realized that men took their sta- 
tions in life, over here, according to their con- 
victions and desires, my whole plan of a king- 
dom fell to pieces. So unusual it seemed to me, 
to see men of peasant birth, but of kingly char- 
acter, step into the station where they belonged. 
Perhaps I can express it in this sentence : Classi- 
fication is by character; and I know of no other 
place under the heavens where that law holds 
good. That is the great awakening for the spirit, 
that is the judgment day when men are revealed 
to themselves by the place to which they natur- 
ally drift. Men with thieving spirits, stealing 
away the honor of their fellow men, and never, 
for one moment, understanding that by that act 
they were fitting themselves for the companion- 
ship of ordinary housebreakers. And men of that 
ilk are terrified when they awake, to find their 
rightful inheritance. It was one of the great sur- 



224 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

prises to me. I had always fancied that a confes- 
sion of sin somehow gave a man a better standing 
in heaven. My theology was wrong. If I could 
come back again to the world, and live among men, 
my energy should be spent to give them an under- 
standing of the spiritual life. But not seeing any 
immediate opportunity to reincarnate myself,* I 
do the best thing I find to do, and send my mes 
sage to the world through you. Nothing is of such 
vital importance as to find out about the truth of 
spirit intercourse ; and I ask no man to follow me 
until he has himself been convinced of the reality 
and possibility of such communications. And 
until he has been convinced that it is not so, let 
him not dare to deny the truth of any statement 
sent by any body of people from the spirit realm 
to the waiting world. 

You will see that I am less interested in the 
comfort to the mourner than in the definite effect 
on the building of character. 

It is no wonder men grow discouraged and dis- 
heartened when kept under the despot 's heel, with 

* I understand this as a touch of humor, not that he be- 
lieves in re-incarnation. All spirits with whom I have spoken 
on the subject, have denied reincarnation. 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 225 

no hope for a future of equal rights for all men, 
and the eternal distinctions of class keeping them 
in the narrow confines which they hate. To all 
such I would proclaim the joyful tidings of salva- 
tion by character, opportunity by aspiration, and 
equality through worthiness. 

I dare not talk any longer ; but I am so grateful 
for this opportunity, for two reasons : one, that 
I have proved to myself that I can transmit a mes- 
sage to a sympathetic earth-clothed spirit, and 
the other, that my voice has broken the silence of 
the grave, and given testimony to the truth of this 
phenomenon. 

Good night, my friend. I will come again, some 
future time. 

William Ewart Gladstone. 

I am deeply grateful to you, Mr. Gladstone, for 
this message, and I hope I may be honored with 
many visits from you at my seances at home. 

The Control: He smiles when you say that. 
He is much pleased. Mr. Browning turns to you 
and says: 

'We were honored, were we not? And I am as 
pleased as you; but you should see Mr. Tennyson 

16 



226 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

and Mr. Myers. Mr. Tennyson kept saying, 'I 
knew he would talk just that way. He could not 
help it. He has seen too much and was too keen 
and honest to be blinded or hoodwinked by any 
religious regalias hung about his neck, or any 
honors poured upon him. His love of truth gave 
him the light;' and Mr. Browning says: 'Never 
fear the kingly heart. It will always respond to 
the master 's touch. ' Mr. Myers says of Mr. Glad- 
stone: 'He knew of our effort in psychic matters, 
and was personally interested in the effort. The 
only thing that surprises me is, that we did not 
invite him before. There are always so many who 
desire to speak, we have some hesitation about is- 
suing any more invitations to the seances. ' Your 
wife smiles at you with that sweet smile she had 
when she was very happy, and then she says : 

I might invite any number of people to visit 
you, dear, but unless there was something in you 
which called out an expression from them, the 
messages would be very imperfect and incomplete. 
We should always have a message giver and a 
message receiver, both attuned to the same high 
impulse, for the best. There can be incomplete 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 227 

messages of almost any kind, in almost any condi- 
tion; but when the requirements are all met, the 
work is as nearly perfect as one could wish. 

I have been writing some lines of my own over 
here. You always made me so proud when you 
spoke well of anything which I did; and I shall 
wait for your approval of the work I have been 
doing. 

I am glad I was a wife with a companion who 
did not wait for me to die before he paid his tri- 
bute to me. 

You know, dear, one of the strangest experi- 
ences is the feeling of youthfulness when I come 
here, and you never seem old to me. The spirit 
body is fashioned and grows side by side with the 
physical body ; and a spirit, who looks at you, sees 
much more plainly your spirit body than your 
physical one. A man with a pure heart and a 
strong upright spirit, has a beautiful spirit body 
which grows to maturity and fulness of expres- 
sion as the physical body grows old. But men 
who fear old age, who have no particular hold on 
the spirit life, shrivel in their bodies and enter 
practically infant bodies in the spirit. You have 



228 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

seen young children look like shriveled old men 
and women, children of the poor, children of men 
and women of animal instincts only. 

The infant bodies I speak of, which small old 
spirits slip into at death (by small I mean mean), 
are of that sort, and they only assume powers and 
upright proportions as they grow in spirit and 
truth. 

The signs of age, like loss of hair, or color, or 
teeth, or physical power, have no bearing on the 
spirit when it is upright and fearless and true. 

To-night is our circle night at home, and we are 
going there ; and a week from to-night you will be 
there, and we can have one of our blessed hours to- 
gether. The boys and Pauline and I give you our 
hearts ' devotion, and send our love to Eugene and 
Cora and Mildred and Pauline and Eollin. 

Carrie. 

30 SEPTEMBER, 1910. 
CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON. 

I, living so close to your heart, desire to claim 
my right, and speak first to you. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 229 

We were with you all through the night, and 
the Indians brought refreshing draughts, and 
were as literally your nurses as if your body had 
been conscious of the touch of their hands, and the 
attentions they gave you. I was not worried 
about you, for I saw the outcome ; but I felt a lit- 
tle troubled to have you the least troubled over 
any condition of the body. 

We are very happy to feel that we have had a 
privilege granted to few; and our delight yester- 
day was increased so much by the message of Mr. 
Gladstone. It was so strong, and from his heart. 
He has long wanted to express himself, but there 
seemed no way for him to do it definitely until 
yesterday. 

Mr. Whitman desires very much to say a little 
to you, this afternoon; so with my love, and a 
promise to return to the dear task of dictating my 
message to you when he has finished his, I will 
withdraw. Carrie. 

WALT WHITMAN. 

Ah, comrade of the earthly life, I give you joy- 
ous greetings. 



230 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

Together in the years that are past, our souls 
have responded to the touch of the same blessed 
influence; and through the days of my sojourning 
in the spirit spheres I have found exhilaration and 
happiness in drawing close to you ; and I look for- 
ward into the future when our friendship, begun 
so long ago, will be sealed by your presence in this 
land where to-day I wait your coming. 

Men make such mad endeavor to find out about 
God and the mysteries of his being. Enough for 
me that the world moves on unerring in its course, 
and that I move with it. If God had not needed 
me, I should not have been; and Tarn quite con- 
tent to wait for the revelation of the Infinite se- 
cret. 

Your boys frequently ask the same old ques- 
tions that long have troubled the minds of youth- 
ful questioners: The why, the when, the how, of 
life ; and I never make effort or pretension in an- 
swering their questions. Sham and pretense have 
covered ignorance since the world began. Adam, 
with his fig leaf in the garden, began the preten- 
sion of the human race. 



WALT WHITMAN 231 

(Let me right here say I do not use Adam as 
one who believes the story of the Garden of Eden ; 
that grand hoax did not appeal to me.) 

But as for me, I will be truthful; and when I 
am asked to explain something for which I have 
no explanation, I will leave the answer for fools 
or impostors. 

I am confident that you prefer that sort of 
teaching for your sons; and so I have no hesita- 
tion in speaking freely to them. The conceited 
man is he who considers that his brain is the key 
to unlock the mysteries of infinitude. 

Grasses grow and flowers brighten the path 
where our feet must walk, and I look with ad- 
miration at the wonderful expression of a power 
I cannot understand, and let my joy find expres- 
sion in the sweetest songs I know. 

But I would not have you think, dear friend, 
that I am content to live as a grasshopper in a 
field of grain, through the long summer days, mak- 
ing no effort to know anything beyond the wheat 
field or the wall. I do make effort to understand 
every thing about me. The law of the life of the 
violet is as interesting to me as the law that holds 



232 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

the stars in their courses; but to understand the 
law does not mean that one understands the omni- 
potent. The delight of our life in the spirit 
spheres, is the ample time we have for performing 
our tasks. No sunset bell rings for us, no appoint- 
ed time holds us in its grasp ; but we move as free- 
ly as a mountain rivulet through the forest or the 
valley, on, on, to the ever-rolling sea. 

I sometimes think that poets are the best philos- 
ophers. They have the prophetic soul, and catch 
glimpses of the ideal life which exists in the spirit 
spheres, and weave around that prophetic know- 
ledge their songs and hymns, their prayers and 
wondrous ministralcies. 

Sometimes when we enter your home in Ithaca, 
the atmosphere is so charged with the spirit fluid, 
we hardly realize any change from this sphere. 
And that gives me an idea that it would be easier 
for spirits to enter the homes and abiding places 
of mortals, if mortals understood how to draw the 
spiritual ether to themselves. I seldom see spirits 
of a high order in banks or counting houses or 
large factories or any purely worldly institution. 
I mean a place where the whole thought is centred 



WALT WHITMAN 233 

on gain. But I see them in great companies in li- 
braries, art museums, and places where the 
thought is stimulated to its highest and best en- 
deavor. What about the Churches? some one will 
ask. They are always crowded with spirits, some 
blinded by their past conceptions, striving to pull 
out of a familiar atmosphere some strength or 
staff to help them in the new life. Some, with a 
bigoted and zealous spirit urging through their 
influence men and women to make connection with 
the place. 

But since the knowledge of life after death has 
been more commonly accepted, and the under- 
standing of communication is more generally 
known by spirits, the Churches are not so well at- 
tended, and the influence from this side of life is 
not so vigorous and emphatic as it was, toward the 
church. 

It is enough to make a man discard his mother's 
prayer when he sees the miserable farce being car- 
ried on over here. Some men are so mulish that 
they believe the date has been changed, and their 
entrance to the glorious heaven of rest, whose 
gates are of pearl, whose inmates play on harps, 
and whose master is a person to be cajoled, has. 



234 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

been delayed or deferred, and that sooner or lat- 
er there will come another change which will take 
them into endless bliss. It is the Catholic's pur- 
gatory over again, and many good denominational 
Christians, when they find the life over here a real 
and vivid reproduction of the life they left, fall 
in with the silly notion that they are in a tempor- 
ary state to be changed later for one made perma- 
nent and definite. Their day of judgment, they 
believe, is yet to come. 

Now we have to fight that sort of an element. 
It is exactly like your world where people won't 
believe what you say, won't take -your evidence, 
and still go on, with that hypnotic spell over them, 
-cast by belief in a Book, and the fear which priest- 
craft and preacher alike have too often instilled 
into their plastic minds, mud minds would be more 
my idea, always mud, without form, without the 
Tesponsiveness of a truly plastic make-up. 

I have never before talked to you about this 
element in the spirit life. But you will see, by 
what I have said, that death does not revolutionize 
the individual, that all progress is growth, that no 
strides are ever taken, that it is positively diaboli- 



WALT WHITMAN 235 

cal to teach error, that the error of ignorance is as 
stultifying to the growth of the soul as wilful 
wickedness, and that men and women had better go 
free with the daisies and the lowing kine, than to 
have liberty of thought stolen from them, and a 
boxed-up three-foot rule of theology put into their 
hands as the only passport to God. You see I 
grow almost rancorous, not from what has been 
done to me. I escaped the thraldom, but not op- 
probium; but my free soul bears me witness that 
unfettered faith is the wing of the bird that finds 
its nest in the heart of infinity. 

It is to my brothers, my sisters, the wrong is 
done; and for them I cry out and beg that the 
truth may be given them. 

I intended to be more personal in my message, 
to tell you how I love your boys, how proud I am 
that they love me, and how pleased I always am to 
have you ask for me. Your appreciative spirit 
draws me closer to your side, as if you were my 
human brother. My thought of you is all tender- 
ness and love ; and the other side of my life, what- 
ever seems out of balance with that softer mood, I 



236 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

trust is only occasioned by my fierce and unadul- 
terated devotion to freedom and truth. Good bye. 

Whitman. 

I thank you with all my heart, Mr. Whitman, 
for this great message. It accords with my whole 
attitude of mind. 

The Control : He bows when you say that, and 
bows so graciously to you, and he says 'good 
cheer, good comrade, till I speak again.' 

Your wife says she had better speak now. 

CAEOLINE EOLLIN CORSON. 

There are a few things, dear Hiram, that I per- 
haps may as well say now; for at the last, there 
are always so many messages to be given, I may 
not think of them. 

I want you to understand how much I appre- 
ciate this visit. 

Sometimes, when you and I used to receive the 
messages together, in various ways, it seemed al- 
most too good to be true. I never doubted, but I 
sometimes wondered just how far our own desires 
were being answered in the messages. But not 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 237 

half of the wonderful story of the spirit life had 
been told. 

The beauty of flower and trees is more beautiful 
than that same expression in the Earth life. 
Every thing seems more vivid, more real to us. It 
is as if in the Earth life, we had been fishes swim- 
ming* in deep waters, and had seen the beauty of 
the sky and the banks through that denser me- 
dium, water; and that suddenly we emerged from 
that and came out into the clear air. As air is 
finer than water, so the ethereal air is finer than 
your air. And when, from our spirit life, we 
come into your atmosphere, it is like entering a 
river of water. It is so different that we some- 
times struggle in it as in an unfamiliar element. 
And we are not always able to see clearly while 
we are in that element as we do when we are once 
more out of it in our own ethereal sphere. 

[I wonder whether you see the landscape as we 
do, when you accompany us in our drives.] 

That depends on the aura or atmosphere, which 
you create about yourself (generate would be a 
better term.) The ethereal atmosphere is created 
by spirits (generated again seems a better word), 



238 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

each spirit being a sort of human dynamo for its 
production. And in spheres where highly de- 
veloped spirits live together in harmony and con- 
cord, the light about them is dazzling white, and 
the air is so fine that spirits of a lower order can- 
not stay there. 

High spiritual development is its own protec- 
tion against wrong. 

I love to come to you, whether you are at home, 
or driving, or walking, or seeing friends. And 
you have so long been living this ideal life, it is 
quite easy for any of us to sustain a long inter- 
view with you. Then our familiarity with your 
associations, house, place, etc., do not make it 
hard, but rather simple and easy for us to see 
clearly. 

I spoke of the denser atmosphere around peo- 
ple in the body; and I meant that, in a general 
way, about people not especially connected with 
us. Love is always a lamp, and lights the way 
from heaven to earth with a radiance as wonder- 
ful and clear as ever shines from Earth to heaven. 
By love's clear light the mother may follow her 
darling to the lowest depths of sin, and at the 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 239 

first breath of aspiration after a better life in the 
sin-sick soul, may exert an influence and power 
that shall save. 

Now I think with the additional message of love 
from Pauline and our dear sons, to you and to 
Eugene and his family, I must say good night. 

I would like right here to send my kindest re- 
membrances to our housekeeper and her daughter, 
for, indeed, they keep house for us, and we appre- 
ciate their faithfulness and devotion to you. 
Good night again. 

Your wife in the spirit spheres, who loved you 
through years of blessed companionship in the 
Earth life, and who waits for you to complete her 
happiness in the home beyond the grave. 

Carrie. 

1 OCTOBER, 1910. 

PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON. 
Here I am, papa, as happy as a bird, and filled 
with that enthusiasm which comes from living in 
an electrified atmosphere. I want to tell you so 
many things, that I hardly know where to begin. 
It all seems so wonderful, as I look back over 



240 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

these sittings, that I can hardly realize that you 
have not been visiting us; and this building* 
where you have lived, will always be a point of 
attraction to me. Since I was here yesterday with 
Mamma, I have been with some of your friends to 
hear a wonderful lecture on the subject which 
lies so near your heart and mine, communication 
of spirits. There was a great company assem- 
bled, and some were as ignorant of the plain fact 
of communication as a Presbyterian elder. But 
most of the people were drawn there by their in- 
terest in the subject ; and there were various plans 
advanced for the improvement of- methods. 

It seems there has been a descent on the physi- 
cal world by a great body of materialistic spirits, 
many of them caring nothing at all about making 
people better, but just getting fun or mischief 
out of the association. But when somebody spoke 
of the wonderful good that might come from com- 
munication, Mr. Gladstone arose and gave his tes- 
timony as to the value it had been to him, just 
recently; and I knew that he referred to his talk 



* 'The Brunswick,' in Boston. The seances were held in 
my rooms there. 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 241 

with you. He said that every good thing in the 
world could be so multilated, or misused, that its 
original purpose would be lost sight of, and that 
he felt that if it were true that large numbers of 
materialistic spirits were using mediumistic peo- 
ple in the world for their sport, it was time that 
the high-minded and lofty spirits should make re- 
newed effort and diligently seek to stand side by 
side with their loved ones in the Earth life, and 
with the weak ones who might thus be secured 
from the wiles of the wicked or witless. 

Was not that a good speech? You see your sit- 
tings have already started work in new directions, 
and will be of use to the world through the up- 
lifting influence of disembodied spirits who care 
not for recognition, but seek only to serve. 

Mr. Gladstone has great influence ; and his opin- 
ion is widely sought. That is why it is good to 
have men like him converted to the wisdom of in- 
tercommunion. 

You say you did not know about materialistic 
spirits. They are not all saints, and they do not 
lose their power when they come over here. But 
they have no definite power over people who de- 



242 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

sire to be right; and their influence is wholly an- 
nulled if there is a Band of orderly, progressive 
spirits about the family circle. 

It does seem, doesn't it, Papa, as if every body 
ought to know about this, and save themselves 
struggle and annoyance. 

Emil often laughs and says they ought to put 
lightning rods on their houses, and then they 
would not be struck by lightning. He is very 
bright and very handsome, too. We have very 
beautiful times together; and he always insists 
that / shall go wherever he goes. So you see we 
are not a divided family, but a happy one. 

I expect that this winter will be a busy one for 
you, and for us, for we want to make more mani- 
festations and come more closely than ever into 
the home. 

I can hardly wait for you to come here to us; 
but Mamma tells me that your life work is not yet 
finished. 

Did I ever tell you how much I love the big pic- 
ture of myself? Isn't the hair beautiful? (Yes.) 
I never realized how pretty it was on my head. 
But the picture looks lovely. 



PAL 1 LINE HENRI ETTE CORSON 243 

Do you remember when I was ill so long, how 
hard it was for me to get in the right position to 
rest! And how my hair troubled me then? But 
Mamma says that when the body was put away, it 
looked like an angel child to her, and that many 
people said so. But, do you know I felt so much 
better, that I could hardly be sorry ; and I remem- 
bered over and over again the things you told me 
about the spirit world. You said it would not be 
hard, that it would be lovely, and it ivas and is. 
Aunt Clara* is just as dear as she can be. She suf- 
fered, too, before she came over here, and she 
was very thin and worn, and it was a joy to her to 
come, just as it was to me. And then aunt Ma- 
thilde** you remember her coming. She was not 
ill so long as aunt Clara ; but it was a relief to her, 
too. 

There are so many things I could speak of which 
you would be pleased to have me mention, but Mr. 
Goldwin Smith thinks perhaps he will have to 
give his message to you just now, and I may re- 
turn. He is a lovely spirit. Paulie. 



* My sister, Clara Corson Sholl. 
** Mathilde Rollin. 



244 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

GOLDWIN SMITH. 

I feel like apologizing, my dear friend, for com- 
ing just at this time, but I was told to touch your 
dear daughter's arm when I felt I was ready, to 
give my good bye message to you. 

I have no desire to preach any long sermon. I 
want only to tell you that my love for books and 
education, fine pictures and tapestries, and all the 
beautiful things that make up the handiwork of 
the world, still interest me. 

If I have one message more than another to give 
to the young men of to-day, it is, to keep busy, 
keep busy. Work is the salvation of the race. If 
you cannot work with your heads, work with your 
hands; and if you cannot work with your hands, 
work with your heads, and keep the heart working 
all the time. Some live interest in some live issue 
in the world is necessary to keep the spirit poised. 
Lopsided, sloppy looking, half fop, half dude, 
wholly brainless youths, there are in plenty. What 
we want is studious, interested, and devoted lov- 
ers of the fine things of life. 

You know how I deplore the loss of manliness 
in our institutions. No more rowdies, but scholars. 



GOLDWIN SMITH 2,4>5 

I would give every man the chance at an educa- 
tion ; but let the rowdies play with themselves, far 
from the scene of our Universities and Libraries, 
and scientific centres. 

I have been here long enough in spirit land to 
understand the potent influence of spirit vitality, 
or, as you more correctly term it, spiritual vitality. 
And I am pleased to see you lay stress on that 
term. It is borne in upon me, each time I look 
out over the world ; and whatever I may have done 
that has been of the least use in the world, at 
this moment I believe is the result of just that ele- 
ment, the spiritual. 

Long years I knew you, and always prized your 
friendship exceedingly, and it gives me more than 
a passing comfort to tell you of it now. 

Your lovely wife, whom I had known, when liv- 
ing, the dear daughter, now grown to splendid 
womanhood, and the sons whom I had never 
known*, have all proved most valuable friends to 
me in this new life. Their very ready assistance in 
those early days of my spirit living, was beauti- 
ful to me; and many of my own people who had 

* They died in babyhood long before he came to America. 



246 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

passed over before me, I found already knew them 
and enjoyed their friendship and love. And when 
your wife suggested that I go with her to your 
home,* I went gladly and enjoyed the evidence I 
saw given you. 

[The Control: He turns around to speak to 
some one, and as he does so, I see a cane in his 
hand. It seems to be a gift from some body and 
as if it were a very old cane. This looks like a 
Louis XV cane he is showing your wife, because 
she is interested in French things.] 

I thank you now as I recall the picture you sent 
me of yourself. It was an excellent likeness. 

I do not give these things as evidence** to you; 
but I wondered if I could talk about things I had 
used and owned,*** with the same ease that I ex- 
pressed my individual hopes and characteristics, 
and I think I can. 

I am satisfied to leave my life work as it is. 
There were many flaws in it; but I always made 
effort to have every man enjoy perfect freedom 



* To attend the seance soon after he passed from the 
body. **■ 

** Evidence of his identity. *** Now that he is out of the 
physical body. 



GOLDWIN SMITH 247 

with whatever I gave him, or whenever I might 
have the privilege of helping him. 

[The Control explains: If he gave him money 
to help him through college, he gave him freedom 
with it.] 

What good would it have been if I had restricted 
the use of the money I left to the University. 
Harvard and Yale and Princeton, and Leland 
Stanford to a sad degree, are all tied up with re- 
strictions that are frequently harder to overcome 
and manage than downright poverty. I have seen 
too much of restricted giving ; and I loved Cornell, 
believed in it, and wanted to give it some help 
towards its future and its freedom. 

Good bye, and not good bye, for I shall find you 
on many a day, and shall give myself the pleas- 
ure of silent, but none the less effective, inter- 
course with you. 

Goldwin Smith. 

The Control: Mr. Longfellow asks if he may 
give a message. (Certainly). 

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 

I'll only keep you a few moments, because I 
want to come this afternoon; for tomorrow the 



2*8 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

seance will be largely devoted to your own;* and 
I am right here and ready, and so think I can 
give my final word. 

This has been a most joyous celebration. T 
could give you no luncheon or a dinner in your 
honor, nor even offer you the hospitality of 
Craigie House; but such as I have to give, has 
been yours unstintedly. 

The little visit to the old home, on the [56th] 
anniversary day of your wedding, was to me like a 
flower culled from a rare garden where chaplets 
of love were woven by Cupids of the past. 

My wife and I were with you and your wife, and 
had a sort of a visit through the ether; but the 
finest and best inspiration which came to all of 
us, was here in this room, when the Indians took 
their places, and became your guard of honor, 
and watched you as only faithful Indians may.** 
They asked no other joy than serving, no other re- 
compense, than love's sweet knowledge of their 
service. 



: It being the last. 

s * They guarded the seances from intruding spirits. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 249 

I can hardly feel that this is to be your last 
visit to Boston, in a physical body. It has all 
gone so smoothly that it has seemed no effort; 
but if it should be that I can now look into the 
future, and see many happy hours we shall pass 
together, toasting our booted feet (since Paulie 
has referred to our kindred boots*) before Emil's 
chemical fire,** with our band of Indians disport- 
ing themselves in picturesque fashion on some 
sunny hill in Spirit Land. 

Now, isn 't that enough to make you long to turn 
your back on the scenes of the dusty old Earth, 
and join us in the clarified atmosphere of Cloud- 
land, where the elf and the goblins are far, far 
away in the groves of Daphne, may be, or the 
cedar hills of Lebanon. 

I think my wife never had a friend she loved 
more dearly than your Carrie. 

Now, adieu to this lovely tour to Boston. I 
will be here tomorrow, and all the days ; but prob- 



* High-topped boots which she saw at the Craigie House. 

** The chemical fire he spoke of in his message, got up by- 
spirits in the spirit world, in imitation of a wood fire, in mem- 
ory of their pleasant memories of physical comforts in this 
world. 



250 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

ably shall not attempt to speak until your return 
to dear Cascadilla Cottage. 

Longfellow. 

Hiram dear, I only want to bid you good day, 
and good night ; and tomorrow the boys and I will 
come. Carrie. 

The Control: She says, in a little caretaking 
way, 'take your medicine which White Cloud or- 
dered, and you '11 be all right. ' 

f 2 OCTOBER, 1910. 

The messages received at this last of the series 
of twenty-four seances, are all parting messages, 
from my wife, daughter, two sons, and the other 
members of the home Band. They have all been 
visiting me for seven years, twice a week, for five 
years, and once a week, for two years. The change 
from twice a week to once a week, was made, as 
they explained, when they were advanced in the 
spirit world ; that is, to a sphere of higher vibra- 
tions; and their duties were in consequence, in- 
creased. 

PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON. 
Papa darling, Mamma told me I could speak 
now, because I am so anxious to tell you how pleas- 



PAULINE HENRI ETTE CORSON 251 

ed I am with all the lovely attentions Miss Lilian 
is showering upon you. And, tomorrow, when you 
go, we are all going, too ; but you will have to pay 
no fare for us; and yet our attentions will be of 
more service to you than the porter who brushes 
your coat, or the maid who sees that your seat is 
all right. 

This has been the happiest three weeks I have 
had since I left you so long ago, for I have felt, 
every day, as if I had been restored to your life, 
in the old intimate relations when every thing you 
could do for me was your pleasure and my joy. 
Joseph and Emil are both here, strong and stur- 
dy as any Indians in Mr. Longfellow's company. 
They have such faith in their power to accomplish 
what they determine to do that they are masters 
of many of the perplexing conditions that sur- 
round the lives of some young men who have not 
learned to have confidence and pluck. Pluck is 
Mr. Whitman's word; and he uses it often, and 
tells the boys it means courage in its best sense. 

I have a little bit of sadness over your going 
home again, but only because I shall miss these 4 
o'clock seances. But you will know, dear, that we 



252 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

are there, and it will seem good to sit down at your 
own table, and eat your own kind of food, and 
have no men standing around for your orders, 

We love the quiet and the harmony of our home 
life in Cascadilla Cottage. 

I am not able to think much about the things 
in the spirit life that I usually like to talk of, with 
you ; but I do want to send a kiss and an embrace 
to Eugene, my dear brother, whose brave, upright 
spirit gives him wings to rise to spiritual heights ; 
and I love the family, and I want him to think of 
me as present with them many times when they 
are having their fun with him. I know his thought 
of me is usually as I last looked during my illness. 
He cannot consider me strong and buoyant and 
full of animal spirits as are his girls; but I want 
him to know that I have animation and joy and 
strong expression, to-day, that I am no longer the 
delicate little girl, but a wholesome, and, I hope, 
tender and brave sister of his. 

I do not need to tell you of my unchanging love, 
unchanging, unless it be to grow stronger. Now, 
father, I am going to stop speaking ; but I shall be 
in the room just the same. 



PAULINE HENRIETTE CORSON 253 

I must tell you one thing, though. Dr. Brooks 
took me to a Home where there were many little 
children who had no mothers with them; and we 
had a long visit there. He loves children* and has 
promised me that I may have two or three of these 
little ones to look after, a little while each day. 
Won't that be beautiful! For I love children, 
too; and I am going to try and tell them a great 
deal about flowers. I think that will be good for 
them. Good bye. Pauline. 

The Control : The oldest boy steps forward to 
speak to you, and he says : 

Father dear, you are not the only one who has 
been benefited and made happy by these visits. 

Ever since I have been old enough to under- 
stand about fathers and mothers, I have been 
taught that you were my father, and that Mother 
was my mother.** And long before you fully rea- 
lized that we were grown, and individualized, 
Emil and I were conscious of our union with you ; 
but for the first time, in all our lives, we have 
been able, during this series of sittings, to talk 

* Bishop Brooks had a special interest in the children of 
the poor, in Boston, when he was in the body. 
** He died in unconscious babyhood. 



254 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

plainly and definitely as sons to a living father. 
And now we are both going forward with stronger 
impulses, and a new-found happiness. Inter- 
course feeds love; so our intercourse with you has 
fed our love. 

So many of your friends are eager to say just 
a word, that I will say no more now, but will let 
Emil come; and Mother will give the last word, 
because she is the nearest and dearest to your 
heart. I want to be remembered to Eugene, also. 

Good bye. Joseph. 

The Control: Emil gives a- little bubbling 
laugh, and a little quick alert movement, and is 
by your side, and he says, in a little low tone : 

Father, I want to whisper a secret to you. Don't 
tell Miss Whiting, for she might think I am unap- 
preciative of her care for you; but it was one of 
those things that you couldn't refuse when she 
planned to go with you;* and while it is very good 
of her to do it, I half wish that she would just as 
soon have stayed here and let your friend, Mr. 
Perabo, go. And he is disappointed, too. But it's 



* To New York, and to see me off for Ithaca. 



EMIL CORSON 255 

all right, only I wanted you to know how I felt 
about it. 

I would like to see New York, the ships, and 
the ocean, and the boats on the river; and Mr. 
Whitman says that some day he will take us out to 
his old home, and on the way we can stop and see 
some of the wonderful buildings in the metropolis, 
and the wonderful ships on the sea.* 

Paulie and Joseph forgot to send their love to 
the housekeeper, but they do now, and you can 
take mine, too, for we are all very much indebted 
to her for your comfort, and her assistance when 
we come. 

Everything all packed up, father? (Yes.) And 
you are better, because you had such good treat- 
ment, both from spirits and mortals. The stuff 
you took for your cough looked like egg lemonade, 
and I think it did much good. You must remem- 
ber about it when you get home. 

I wish I could whisper to you and not let ttun- 



* Not having had experience in the physical life, earthly 
scenes have a great interest for him. 



256 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

beam* hear, how much I love her. [The Control: 
That makes me laugh to hear him give that mes- 
sage.] It has been so easy for us to express to 
you, through her, and Mamma says that her 
charm is in her obedience, that she obeys and 
questions not, which is more than I do, sometimes, 
for I always want to know why I do things. 

That's like you, isn't it, Father, to question 
why you do things. That's the reason why you 
do not always follow the plough that the primitive 
man made furrows in the minds of men with. 

Now, Father, I too must say good bye, with love 
to Eugene and his wife and three children, to Miss 
Lilian, to Mr. Perabo, and much to yourself. And 
may I send it to Mrs. Soule, as well? 

Good bye. Emil. 

WALT WHITMAN. 

I don't feel like letting the opportunity pass 
without one word of greeting from me. All the 
future will be brighter for these days of under- 
standing converse. 



* The name of the Control. She had a voice of great 
charm; and when she uttered this sentence, it was enveloped 
in an electric aura. 



PHILLIPS BROOKS 257 

My blessing and my benediction on your life and 
efforts. Your gifts are wonderful, your insight 
into expression of public men, most keen, and all 
your life is one uplifting thought. Your friend, 

Phillips Beooks. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 

This is almost as good as the last day of school, 
isn't it? I am not going to have one sad thought 
over the discontinuance of the daily lessons, for 
they have certainly been lessons in art of spirit 
communication, to me, and I am going to prove 
that I have been a good student by exercising my 
knowledge in the beloved home circle. 

Your friend, and wife wishes to sign herself the 
same. Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Longfellow. 

The Control: Mr. Myers wishes to say that 
this is one of the prettiest expressions of mes- 
sage-giving that he has ever witnessed, and that 
he feels the honor is his to be included in this 
party on this day; and he adds his kindest greet- 
ings and earnest hopes for a continuance of the 



258 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

same sweet intercourse in the future which he 
has enjoyed through the sittings here. 
Your friend both sides the veil. 

Frederic Myers. 

ALFRED TENNYSON. 

Never before have I told you of the pleasure 
it gives me to sit down and have a pipe-dream 
with you. I enjoy the odor of your smoke, and col- 
lect my thoughts with the same efficiency from the 
effect of it as I used to when I smoked my own 
pipe, in my own garden. 

(I haven 't found, Mr. Tennyson, that I am in- 
jured by moderate smoking.) 

Never stop. It never hurt me, nor did I find my 
power smoke-dried or diseased by the use of to- 
bacco. A great many people who never drink 
coffee are perfectly sure that coffee upsets the 
equilibrium of their friends : the same is true with 
them in regard to tobacco; but it is not so. And 
you and I know that coffee or tobacco gives the 
needed stimulus to the brain, and leaves no bad 
effect when not abused in its use. I had no notion 
of having my good bye to you have the sound of 



ALFRED TENNYSON 259 

parting advice to a young man about to depart for 
College ; but as you are a young man, and as you 
ar« about to depart for College, perhaps my ad- 
vice on tobacco and its use may be of some advant- 
age to you. 

In any event, I will see you on or near your own 
campus in a few days. 

My regards and the regards of Lady Tennyson 
to you. Tennyson. 

Just a word in passing, dear friend of mine. 1 
love the home life best, and will come to see you 
there. Miss Bennett. 

The Control: Then Mr. and Mrs. Browning 
smile, and it is Elizabeth who speaks, and she 
says: 

We simply refuse to be separated from each 
other, or from you ; and we are so happy to have 
Lilian attend us on our way ; for we go with you, 
and your loved wife, to sweet Cascadilla Cottage, 
where the Autumn glories already crown the hill- 
side, and the beautiful sunshine falls softly on the 
Lake; where the door will swing wide that the 
Master may enter, and the silent rooms will give 
sweet greeting as he once more takes his accus- 



260 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

tomed place in the cottage that belongs to his 
heart. 

No good bye, say we. No sign of a farewell, 
only our hands pressed softly into your own as 
you pass out of this place of sacred memories 
into the active busy life of travel, and on, on, 
speeding toward your native hills and valleys. 

Elizabeth Bkowning 
and Robekt Bkowning. 

The Control: The Indians now all stand up 
and make a little sign of greeting to you. They 
will still be your band to see that you safely pass 
through the whirling conditions of the big city, 
and are safe at home at last. Then your Carrie 
puts her arms around you, and with a face all 
radiant with smiles, says : 

This has been a blessed time and not the least 
blessed is this day. Tomorrow we go forth again, 
bride and bridegroom, as in the old golden days, 
assured that life or death, distress or disaster, joy 
or sorrow, but draws us more closely together in 
a bond of spiritual union over which preside the 
holiest influences of Infinite Love. 



CAROLINE ROLLIN CORSON 261 

Love to my Eugene and his family, to Miss Lil- 
ian, Mr. Perabo, Mme. Boge, for her kindness to 
you, the Medium and her guides, and to you all, 
all. 

I'll be pleased to have you give the diamond 
ring to Miss Whiting, with my love. 

Youk Carrie. 



Here ended this series of remarkable messages, 
all being from spirits of an advanced sphere, six 
of whom were, in this world, distinguished poets, 
one of them being also the foremost contributor to 
psychology ; one, an eloquent preacher and a liber- 
al and noble bishop ; one, long prominent as a his- 
torian and a political writer; one, the greatest 
novelist, in subject matter, America has produced ; 
and one a great statesman and a prime minister of 
England. 

The messages of all are remarkably character- 
istic of the several messagers,* and are of the 

* I use this original form of "Messengers" as suiting best 
here. 



262 SPIRIT MESSAGES 

highest value as representing the spirit world and 
its activities, and its intimate relationship to this 
world — a relationship, however, which is more or 
less conditional, that is, dependent npon the 
spiritual and mediumistic state of this world, a 
fact of tremendous importance as bearing upon 
this world's welfare, its religious, and even scien- 
tific, progress. 



INDEX 

Absolute truth to be found only within man ... 19 

Activities of the Spirit World 95, 96 

Age, signs of, have no bearing on the spirit 

when upright and true 228 

Allston street, house No. 6, visited 152, 153 

America, its possibilities for romance and pic- 
ture 147 

Characterized by Browning 212 

Andrews, Mary, the medium, alluded to 206 

Augustine, St., his opinion that Christianity 

existed before Christ 10 

1 Aurora Leigh' quoted by Browning 98 

Austin, Alfred, as poet laureate, alluded to ... . 166 

Automobile ride, accompanied by spirits 102 

Automobiles alluded to 70, 71 

Beecher, Henry Ward, alluded to 73 

Bennett, Frances E., her messages, . . .66, 114, 200 

Blavatsky, Mme., described 178 

Bondage of spirit 29 



266 INDEX 

Bonds of soul only, hold people together in the 

spirit world 200 

Boston described 105 

Brooks, Phillips, his messages. 89, 119, 177, 181, 257 

Characterized by Browning 99 

His work as a spirit alluded to 177 

How he regarded Spiritualism when in the 

body 181 

How, as a spirit *. 182 

Browning, Elizabeth B., her messages. . . .57, 140, 

207, 259 

The birth of her son, alluded to . „ 208 

Her father 's ' overpowering care ' 208 

An inspiration to Browning after her death. . 208 

Characterized 127 

Her influence acknowledged in the writing of 

'The Eing and the Book', 138 

Her love of old castles and ruins 175 

Her impression of the Christian Science 

Church in Boston 109 

Browning, Bobert, his messages. . .54, 97, 134, 210 
Thinks he has more appreciative readers in 

Boston than in London 139 

His ' Paracelsus ' quoted 19 



INDEX 267 

Buddha alluded to 124 

Bull, Ole, his violin-playing in the spirit world. 112 
Cascadilla Cottage, Ithaca, N. Y., where the 
seances were held, and direct voices are re- 
ceived from the Band 75, 259 

Children 's Homes in the spirit world 253 

Child 's play is this world, from the standpoint 

of the spirit 107 

Christian Science Church in Boston visited by 

the Spirit Band 108 

Christianity existed before Christ 10 

Classes in the spirit world 14 

Classification in spirit world 56, 222-224 

Clothing in the spirit world 110, 111, 122 

Concerts in the spirit world Ill, 112, 122 

Confucius alluded to 124 

Consciousness or unconsciousness of the Uni- 
versal spirit 15 

Conversation, ordinary 163 

Conversion, its true meaning; beautiful ex- 
ample of 35, 36 

Cornell University 247 

Corson, Alan, characterized 52, 53 



268 INDEX 

Corson, Mrs. C. R., her messages 49-51, 61- 

64, 83-88, 101, 102, 105, 106, 110-114, 127, 128, 
131-133, 151-153, 170-172, 180, 181, 189-191, 
198-200, 217, 218, 226-228, 229, 230, 260, 261 

Corson, Emil, his messages 65, 75, 185, 254 

Corson, Dr. Eugene R., characterized 142 

Corson, Joseph, his messages 52, 143, 253 

His views of the Jews 170 

Has made a study of Tolstoi's work 170,171 

Corson, Pauline H., her messages. .47, 64, 65, 102- 
105, 128-130, 172-180, 204-206, 239-243, 251-253 
Creeds and dogmas, their intolerant dominancy 8 
Imposed on Christianity by the unspiritualiz- 

ed intellect 8 

Cremation 218 

Cross-correspondence 81 

As a test of spirit identity 195 

Craigie House, visited by the Band 83-86 

Crucifixion identified with the Hebrew expia- 
tory sacrifice 6 

Long a chosen subject in Christian art 6 

Death does not revolutionize the individual . . . 234 

A gate that makes all life one 90 

De Imitatione Christi, quoted 31, 32 



INDEX 269 

De Quincey, his definition of genius 39 

His annotation on Matt iii. 2 36 

Descent on the world by materialistic spirits. . . 240 

Desires have voices 82 

Devotion, the spontaneous result of spiritual 

vitality 16 

Divine faculties of man paralyzed by priest- 
hoods 12 

Drives, accompanied by a large band of spirits . 60 
Ecclesiastical history, the darkest pages of, 

due to creeds and dogmas 8 

Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker Glover, alluded to 108 

Education, what it truly is 22 

Should induce a synthesis of the spirit and 

the intellect, each acting through the other 39 
Educating as distinguished from teaching. .32, 33 
Edward VII, his reception in the spirit 

world 55, 56 

Enjoyment of life in Earth's sphere and in 

Spirit Sphere, contrasted 181 

Eternal word, the speaking of the, conditional . 9 
Ether, currents through, by which spirits are 

borne along 102 

Evolution implies involution 31 



270 INDEX 

Facts, a mere interest in 197 

Faith, unfettered 235 

Field, Kate, alluded to 65, 84 

Friendship, the condition of true 209 

Of Tennyson and Browning 137 

Genius, as defined by F. W. H. Myers 38 

How regarded by Dr. Nordau 38 

Other definitions 39 

Akin to madness, from the popular stand- 
point 167 

Geraint and Enid, the Idyll, alluded to by Ten- 
nyson " 168 

Gladstone, William E., his message 219-225 

Characterized by Browning 213, 214 

Psychic phenomena appealed to him when in 

the body 219 

Alludes to Home Rule 221 

Remarks on, by Browning, Tennyson, and 
Myers 225, 226 

God, the primitive man's conception of 5 

Love of, what it should mean 17 

Gospels, The, exhibit an evolution of theology. 6, 7 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, his message 149-151 



INDEX 271 

His ' Marble Faun' had a strange fascination 

for him ; an unconscious medium 149 

His mode of writing 150 

His happy marriage 150 

Longfellow 's friendship 150 

Thinks 'The Scarlet Letter' was written by 
some other spirit. 

Heaven, a spiritual condition 177 

Not a place of eternal rest, but a life of love 

and service 161 

Heredity has an entirely physical basis 29 

Hudson, Thomas Jay, his telepathy a trois; 
had the conceit taken out of him in the 

spirit world . . . 193, 194 

Human spirit and the universal spirit, one and 

the same 16 

Ignorance of the spiritual life, the sin of the 

world 173 

Immortality, its proof not within the domain of 

the discursive intellect 23 

Indians in the spirit world, characterized by 

Longfellow 147 

Influence of the spirit world on this world. ... 46 
'In Memoriam' alluded to by Tennyson 168 



272 INDEX 

Italian Curia of the Roman Catholic Church ..8,9 
Jesus of the Fourth Gospel, a different per- 
sonality from the Jesus of the Synoptics. . 7 

No dogmatism ascribed to him in the Gospels 8 

King's Chapel in Boston 153 

Knowledge absolute 16 

Laureateship, The 167 

Life in the spirit spheres 232 

Lincoln, Abraham, interested in spirit commu- 
nication 101 

Literature, the true function of 18 

Lodge, Sir Oliver, alluded to \ 192 

Longfellow, H. W., his messages 72, 73, 108, 

109, 146-148, 249, 250, 257 

Domestic tragedy of his life 73 

Love of God, what it should mean 17 

The attraction for spirit visitation 103 

The divinity that broods over the world . 135, 136 

Magnetic currents between loved ones 102 

Manliness, loss of, in universities 244 

Marpessa, 'a poem prophetic and far seeing' 

(Tennyson) 167 

Materialistic spirits 240 



INDEX 273 

Mediums, all are, in degree, no care taken of 

them 148, 195 

Men of facts 197 

Ministers of the Gospel, the true function of . . 34 

Silent about Spiritualism 173 

How some reckon their ministry successful . . 124 

Miracles in Fourth Gospel 7 

Modes of travel in the spirit world 102 

Mott, Valentine, his message 155-159 

Mount Auburn Cemetery described 172, 173 

Music in the spirit world 204, 205 

Myers, F. W. H., his messages 77-83, 

191-198, 257, 258 

His contributions to psychology 38 

Nature, love of 17, 18 

Nordau, Dr. Max, alluded to 38 

Old age, its limitations 165 

Oneness, attainment to a sense of 16 

Pantheism, science has led to an extended be- 
lief in 12, 13 

Paul's Epistles, the source of the doctrine of 

vicarious atonement 6 

Peace eternal, to whom it belongs 31 

Personal God, man's earliest conception of a. . 5 

19 



274 INDEX 

Personality, what constitutes it 20 

Phillips, Stephen, his one wonderful poem, ac- 
cording to Tennyson 167 

Poetic power sets aspiration aflame 162 

Poetry, its great function 23 

Not a lost art in the spirit world 69 

Poets, great creative, born pantheists 17 

Their sense of Kinship with the Universal 

Spirit 17 

Their sense of the unfitness of things in hu- 
man life 57 

. .Poets and love of poets mus,t be in any 

sphere of existence 69 

Must speak from the depth of their being. . .162 

Are reformers 212 

Have the prophetic soul 232 

Pompilia, in ' The Eing and the Book, ' charac- 
terized by Browning 138 

Psychology as taught in the schools 37 

Public education in the United States 36 

Religion, no half-hearted 120 

Rest, The, offered by the great rest-giver 24 

Restricted giving to universities 247 

Resurrection, The, what it signified to Jesus . . 21 



INDEX 275 

Rewards and punishments, automatic 13 

Roge, Mme. (Charlotte Fiske Bates), alluded 

to 84,86 

Roman Catholic Church and ' Modernism ' . . . . 12 

Salvation as taught by Jesus 41 

Scheffler, Johann, quoted on Salvation 41 

Schiller, Dr. F. C. S., on consciousness 28 

Schurman, J. G., President of Cornell Univer- 
sity 216 

Science, the Church an obstacle to 12 

Sermons that reach the soul in need 212 

Seward, William Henry, alluded to 101 

Sholl, Clara Corson, her message 159-161 

Sin means imperfect realization of the spirit- 
ual nature 30 

Sjoegren, Matilda, alluded to. .66 y 79, 116, 117, 203 
Smith, Goldwin, his messages.. 46, 214-217, 244-247 

Sorrow, a theme for the versifier 162 

Soule, Minnie M., alluded to 78, 102 

Spirit body 26-28 

Spirit, bondage of 29 

Spirit communion as a philosophy 125, 126 



276 INDEX 

Spirit visitation, a growth for spirits to con- 
tinue their relationship with their loved . 

ones on earth 90 

Its importance in the religious world 91 

Spirit world, activities of the 95, 96 

Spirits always responsive to receptivity 193 

A saving power in this world 13 

Enjoy the memory of physical comforts in 

the Earth life 188 

How Tennyson regarded them when in the 

body 169 

Leave the body, temporarily . . . . . v 87, 88 

Materialistic spirits 241, 242 

Spirits ' power of seeing long distances 47 

Undeveloped spirits retard the growth of 

souls in this life 66, 67 

Spiritual development, its own protection 

against wrong 238 

Spiritual education, in what does it consist?. . 19 
Spiritual vitality, the all in all of Christianity . 7 

Potent influence of 245 

Spiritualism, the great service it renders .... 39-41 

Its importance in the religious world 91 

No longer needs a defence of its life. 39 



INDEX 277 

Its contributions to psychology 37, 38 

The literature of 40, 41 

Its effectiveness toward righteousness 91 

Spirit world, activities and false conceptions 

of the 95, 96 

Stovaine, as a local anaesthetic 157 

Sumner, Charles, his message 106-108 

Synoptic Gospels and John, exhibit an evolu- 
tion of theology 6, 7 

Synthesis of the spirit and the intellect 39 

Teaching as distinguished from educating. .32, 33 
Telepathy, made by some to explain all spirit 

messages 193, 194 

Tennyson, Alfred, his messages 58-61, 

161-170, 258, 259 

His mode of writing 162 

His poem on ' Wages ' of Virtue 14 

Eesents criminal immigration to the spirit 

world 169 

Theatres in the spirit world 101 

Thought, transmission of, between people and 

spheres in the spirit world 221 

Total depravity, the monstrous absurdity of 
theology 29 



278 INDEX 

Travel in the spirit world, modes of 102 

Truth absolute 19 

Unconsciousness, domain of 20, 21 

Universal Spirit, the degrees of its manifesta- 
tion determined by the kinds of its embodi- 
ments 25 

Universe, The, has one and the same life 16 

Upanishads, quotation from the 31 

Uprisings from the unconscious self 23 

Versifiers who catch the ear with a cunning 

manner of metre 137 

Vicarious atonement, not in the nature of 

things 41 

Victoria, Queen, description of her in the spirit 

world 166 

Violin playing in the spirit world Ill, 112 

Virtue, the wages of 14, 15 

Vivekananda, alluded to 178 

Vocal interpretation, importance of, in spirit- 
ual education 23 

• Walking with God ', what it should mean 17 

Watson, William, the poet, alluded to by Ten- 
nyson 167 



INDEX 279 

Wealth that survives death, the wealth of the 

lordly spirit 122 

Webster, Daniel, alluded to 101 

Whiting, Lilian, Mrs. Browning's love of. . .57, 58 
The close spiritual relationship of Mrs. 

Browning with 143 

Browning glad that she is writing the lives 

of himself and wife 138, 139 

Alluded to 65, 96-98, 102, 108, 184, 189 

Whitman, Walt, his messages. .67,-72, 229-236, 256 

Quotation from 22 

His poem on 'Vocalism,' 34 

A much misunderstood man 50 

Characterized 146 

A deeply religious man 206 

Wliittier, J. GL, quoted 210 

"W'oman, The, with the serpent's tongue," by 
William Watson, alluded to by Tennyson . 167 

Wordless prayer 24 

Work, the salvation of the race 244 

Wordsworth, a pantheist 17 



DEC 29 1911 



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